Darius Lovehall is a young black poet in Chicago who starts dating Nina Moseley, a beautiful and talented photographer. While trying to figure out if they’ve got a “love thing” or are just “kicking it,” they hang out with their friend, talking about love and sex. Then Nina tests the strength of Darius’ feelings and sets a chain of romantic complications into motion.
John Langston Gwaltney
John Langston Gwaltney was a writer and anthropologist focused on African American culture, best known for his book Drylongso: A Self Portrait of Black America. He was a professor of anthropology at the University of Syracuse in New York. Drylongso is a collection of Gwaltney’s transcriptions of oral interviews with who he described as “core black people”, ordinary men and women who made up black America.
Honestly, I couldn’t bring myself to post this any other time but after hearing about Whitney, I figured that since R.I.P. most people cant even fathom what its like to be trapped in the spotlight, reading this might help them out.
Death, a shape, a thing. Death, a sound, a movement. Death is black, death is going back to black. They use my face. They use my eyes. They sell my soul. They touch me, they molest me. They tell me to stand, they tell me to sing. They plead with me to become.
They make me filthy, then they say they want to cleanse me. Death, the hour awaits, I have nothing, I am neither human nor a machine, stuck in between. I am neither a thing nor a feeling. I am neither alive nor dead. Death, the voice that sinks, the happiness that lingers in the flesh itself.
Death, they tell me to sing for the people. I say nothing, my words are nothing but futile distraction. I lie to humanity. I am a false icon. I am a disease, they, want me to spread. They want me to distract, they use my suffering as a tool to keep the people watching.
When will she break down? I want to break down. Death, awaits those with nothing left. Death, awaits those who betray their life for the meaningless rewards of the future. I want to die, I will die, moments, appearances, all falsities. They want me to sing and dance, they want me to please when there is only suffering left. They want me to be genuine, when it is all process. Fame, fake happiness, pretend desires. It’s all fake, it’s all dead.
Death, it’s all really dead.
Death, I’ve died a hundred times, so what’s one more.
Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music’s queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.
Houston‘s publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.
News of Houston‘s death came on the eve of music’s biggest night — the Grammy Awards. It’s a showcase where she once reigned, and her death was sure to case a heavy pall on Sunday’s ceremony. Houston‘s longtime mentor Clive Davis was to hold his annual concert and dinner Saturday; it was unclear if it was going to go forward.
At her peak, Houston the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world’s best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.
Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like “The Bodyguard” and “Waiting to Exhale.”
She had the he perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.
She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.
But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.
“The biggest devil is me. I’m either my best friend or my worst enemy,” Houston told ABC’s Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.
It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.
She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.
Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.
“The time that I first saw her singing in her mother’s act in a club … it was such a stunning impact,” Davis told “Good Morning America.”
“To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine,” he added.
Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with “Whitney Houston,” which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. “Saving All My Love for You” brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. “How Will I Know,” “You Give Good Love” and “The Greatest Love of All” also became hit singles.
Another multiplatinum album, “Whitney,” came out in 1987 and included hits like “Where Do Broken Hearts Go” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”
The New York Times wrote that Houston “possesses one of her generation’s most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity.”
Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the “Soul Train Awards” in 1989.
“Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?” she told Katie Couric in 1996. “You’re not black enough for them. I don’t know. You’re not R&B enough. You’re very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them.”
Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop‘s pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.
But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.
“When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place,” she told Rolling Stone in 1993. “You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that’s their image. It’s part of them, it’s not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody’s angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy.”
It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America‘s sweetheart.
In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with “The Bodyguard.” Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.
It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy’s record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the “Bodyguard” soundtrack was named album of the year.
She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with “Waiting to Exhale” and “The Preacher’s Wife.” Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, “My Love Is Your Love,” in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut “It’s Not Right But It’s Okay.”
But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time “The Preacher’s Wife” was released, “(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. … I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. … I wasn’t happy by that point in time. I was losing myself.”
In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.
Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.
She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown’s reality show, “Being Bobby Brown,” was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared “crack is whack,” was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.
Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album “I Look To You.” The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.
Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on “Good Morning America” went awry as Houston‘s voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.
A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.
Twenty men-teachers, businessmen, writers and pastors-have been named winners of the BME Leadership Award, created to honor black men in Philadelphia and Detroit who step up to lead the community.
“There is no cavalry coming to save the day in black communities in America. The answers we’re looking for reside right within the hearts, hands, and heads of community residents,” said Shawn Dove, manager of the Open Society Foundations Campaign for Black Male Achievement, which is helping to sponsor the award. “BME recognizes black men and boys as assets to the community, not as problems to be solved, and we’re thrilled to be a partner in this strategy.”
The BME Challenge offers the winners a combined $443,000 with the aim of inspiring others to step forward to strengthen their communities.
The funding will pair young people with senior citizens and culinary experts to plant vegetable gardens in vacant lots, equip new fathers parenting skills, provide therapy for autistic children, help veterans find services, and more. The winners’ stories, and information on their projects, are below. See and share videos of them at bmechallenge.org.
The BME Leadership Award is part of the BME Challenge, which is pronounced “Be Me” and stands for Black Male Engagement. BME is led by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in partnership with the Open Society Campaign for Black Male Achievement.
Earlier this year, BME asked local black men and boys in its two pilot cities to share the stories of what they do to make their communities stronger. More than 2,000 people in Detroit and Philadelphia submitted personal video and written testimonials, viewable at bmechallenge.org. Those who shared their stories were then eligible to apply for funding through the BME Leadership Award.
BME is an ongoing initiative that seeks to recognize, reinforce and reward black males who engage others in making communities stronger.
“The award shines a light on a truth that we need to remember: there are thousands of black men in these cities who choose to make it a stronger and better place to live for all of us,” said Trabian Shorters, one of the leaders behind the BME Challenge, which sponsors the award. “Perhaps if we tell their stories and others decide to support their efforts, you will see more and more black men and boys willing to follow their example.”
This spring, BME will be looking for local partnerships in Detroit and Philadelphia to encourage more black males to positively engage in their communities. This summer, BME will conduct another call for stories, to be followed in the fall by a call for a new round of applications to the BME Leadership Award.
The winners of the 2012 Black Male Engagement Leadership Award are:
Connor survived cancer as a young teenager and has since dedicated his life to serving as a teacher and mentor, working through schools and media to help young people understand their potential.
Project: Connor will lead book clubs at schools and at off-site field trips to expose Detroit teenagers to important life skills and character traits that he has embraced during his life. ($10,000)
Dandridge is a law school graduate who helps small businesses overcome legal obstacles. As a young parent himself, he founded New Young Fathers, a local initiative to help equip young men with the skills they need to be great dads.
Project: Dandridge will lead a series of in-depth workshops that New Young Fathers will conduct across the city. The workshops are designed to better prepare young men for fatherhood and help them become more aware of their potential. ($25,000)
Ellis was in prison when his life was transformed by reading the biography of Reginald Lewis – lawyer, investor, philanthropist, and the wealthiest black man of his day.
Project: The Reginald Francis Lewis Reading Academy will strive to improve literacy, civic responsibility, and academic achievement at Martin Luther King, Jr. High School. Each enrolled student will read and write a self-affirming essay on the Reginald Lewis biography and “Lonely At The Top” a new e-memoir by his daughter, Christina Lewis-Helpern, and be exposed to a literacy mentor; 30 boys will participate in a competitive college readiness program at Michigan State University. ($40,000)
Kumane is a manager in the auto industry who volunteers at local schools through Big Brothers Big Sisters Detroit.
Project: Drawing on his network in schools and in the corporate community, Kumane will lead a project to expose 100 young people to the business world. They’ll meet with 20 local businesses, learn how the businesses work, and devise a plan for an enterprise they’d like to start. ($25,000)
After coming out as a gay man with HIV/AIDS, Lipscomb began helping young people around him take action against discrimination.
Project: Lipscomb will oversee the LEAD project, which will facilitate an in-depth training of 22 young Detroiters to become more effective advocates of social issues facing the city’s LGBT community. ($20,000)
Pope is a global career development facilitator and motivational life coach who advises and volunteers for various community projects in his neighborhood and the city.
Project: Pope will launch Be Exposed, a program to inspire ambition in young people by exposing them to new cultural and social activities, including shows, restaurants, and field trips to new cities. ($5,000)
Senghor started writing while he was incarcerated and later developed a career as an author and speaker who inspires young people with his voice.
Project: Senghor will launch and oversee the Live in Peace Digital and Literary Arts Project, which will coach young people on how to fully express their life stories across media. The project will result in each young person creating his or her personal “anthology” of stories. ($25,000)
Shakur is a formerly incarcerated person who has become a well-known community activist focused on youth empowerment in a Detroit neighborhood known as Zone 8.
Project: Shakur will increase the impact of the cyber café he has opened in his neighborhood by providing literacy classes, digital training, and school supplies to young people in the neighborhood. ($10,000)
Talbert, a former media executive, is now a pastor devoting himself to mentoring youth in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood.
Project: Talbert will lead Rescue 51, an initiative of four BME Challenge participants to develop literacy skills, character, and a knowledge of health and wellness issues for 51 children in Detroit’s Brightmoor neighborhood. ($20,000)
Westbrooks is an advertising executive who founded Detroit Comeback Kids, which offers young Detroiters innovative, project-based experiences across the city.
Project: Through Detroit Comeback Kids, Westbrooks will help kids plant vegetable gardens in unused lots across the city by matching young Detroiters with local culinary arts experts and senior citizens who own vacant lots they seek to beautify. Small vegetable stands will offer extra produce to the community. ($20,000)
The winners of the 2012 BME Leadership Award in Philadelphia are:
Corbin is a teacher who integrates hip-hop, spoken word, and poetry into his classroom lessons to help better reach students. He also founded the Philadelphia Youth Poetry Movement.
Project: Corbin will launch The Legacy Project, which will explore the multi-layered experience of Black men through a one-man theatrical performance and community workshops. ($25,000)
Dumas is the founder of DollarBoyz, a youth entertainment company, and CEO of Youth Now On Top (Y-Not).
Project: Dumas will lead Y-Not Youth, an after-school program that offers a safe haven, dance instruction, and homework help. ($35,000)
Hicks owns Ebony Suns Enterprises, a consulting business that provides social media training for youth and social entrepreneurship programming to schools and nonprofits.
Project: Hicks will lead FLASH MOB, where young black men will learn how to create – and then implement – a business-branding campaign via social media. ($20,500)
Jones, who was formerly incarcerated, works to reduce the amount of shootings in North Philadelphia by mentoring high-risk youth and mobilizing the community.
Project: Jones will create a curriculum that helps prevents youth from going to prison and returning citizens from recidivating. ($35,000)
While serving a 15-year prison sentence, Jones fought and won custody of his son. After his release, he founded Frontline Dads to help others in similar situations deal with custody and child support issues. The group also conducts a mentoring program for at-risk youth. Jones pursued a career as a therapist and has a master of human services degree.
Project: Jones will launch the Frontline Dads Comprehensive Transformation Initiative, a mentoring/intervention program that fosters critical thinking skills, conflict resolution, creative expression, and counseling. ($20,000)
Jones, who originally dropped out of college, overcame addiction and homelessness and pursued a degree and a career as an author of seven novels, an award-winning columnist, and a professor at Temple University.
Project: Jones will expand Words on the Street literacy program, which aims to increase the literacy of more than 600 students through role modeling, workshops, and the opportunity to write a story that will be published in The Philadelphia Inquirer. ($20,000)
Ari Merretazon
Merretazon is a Vietnam veteran who shared his life story in an anthology on black veterans and has since worked to help those returning from war. The movie “Dead Presidents” was loosely based on his life.
Project: Merretazon will expand Pointman Soldiers Heart Ministry, a group of Vietnam and Desert Storm veterans, to help returning veterans from the Middle East find counseling, job services, and benefits. ($25,000)
During his sophomore year in college, Peay founded the mentoring program Rising Sons. After losing interest in going to law school after graduation, he decided to bring his organization to Philadelphia and dedicate his life to help black males achieve their goals, dreams, and ambitions.
Project: Peay will strengthen Rising Sons, an after-school program where recent college graduates and college students between 18-25 mentor boys at three Philadelphia public high schools. Rising Sons will also train students to mentor boys at two local elementary schools. ($4,650)
Williams is the father of three children, one of whom is autistic. When he couldn’t find services for autistic children in his neighborhood, he started his own.
Project: Williams will expand Project Elijah Empowering Autism, an after-school program for middle-spectrum autistic students ages 8-14. The group will open a new facility in Philadelphia in 2012, and will use the funding to offer speech, gross motor, recreation, music, and life skills therapies. ($38,700)
White is a recording artist/producer and the project director for the University of Pennsylvania’s “Shape Up: Barbers Building Better Brothers program”, which conducts HIV/AIDS and violence prevention through barbers and their clients.
Project: White will launch Phreman Audio Studio Academy, which will teach audio recording and mixing to young people while promoting HIV/AIDS prevention and anti-violence strategies. ($19,300).
Contact Maria Archuleta about this release at marchulta@sorosny.org or call 1-212-547-6916
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The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
Active in more than 70 countries, the Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable to their citizens. Working with local communities, the Open Society Foundations support justice and human rights, freedom of expression, and access to public health and education.
Audre Lorde
Audrey Geraldine Lorde was a Caribbean-American writer, poet and activist. Lorde’s poetry was published very regularly during the 1960s — in Langston Hughes‘ 1962 New Negro Poets, USA; in several foreign anthologies; and in black literary magazines. During this time, she was politically active in civil rights, anti-war, and feminist movements. Some of Lorde’s works are The First Cities, Coal, Black Unicorn, and The Cancer Journals.
A black man plays Uncle Tom in order to gain access to CIA training, then uses that knowledge to plot a new American Revolution.
Sam Greenlee (screenplay), Melvin Clay (screenplay), and 1 more credit »
Sterling Allen Brown
Sterling Allen Brown was a professor, author of works on folklore, poet and literary critic. Some of his works are Southern Road, Harcourt, Brace and company, and Negro Poetry. In the early 1980s his Collected Poems won the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize for the best book of poetry. He was interested chiefly in black culture of the Southern United States.
Legendary producer/host Don Cornelius was found dead early this morning and his Los Angeles home.
According to reports, Don Cornelius allegedly took his life from a self-inflicted gunshot.
In recent years, the 75-year-old was in failing health and according to various sources, he suffered from dementia.
Don Cornelius helped revolutionize black music when he created televisions longest running dance show, “Soul Train.”
The show aired from 1971 – 1993, with Don Cornelius plan host during those years.
Don Cornelius’ association with Hip-Hop music was fleeting throughout the years.
Although a number of Hip-Hop groups appeared on “Soul Train,” Don Cornelius was admittedly not a fan of the genre.
“[Cornelius] ultimately decided that there was a duty to show the culture as authentically as possible,” according to the “Soul Train” website. “Soon after, the Soul Train Awards developed and while there were unfortunate occurrences at different shows, there was an overall appreciation for the award ceremony recognizing Hip-Hop’s contribution to American culture.”
A variety of rappers have named checked “Soul Train” in their songs, from Eric B & Rakim, to De La Soul.
Legendary rapper Kurtis Blow was the first Hip-Hop artist to appear on “Soul Train”, in 1980.
More details will be released as they become available.
‘
Rosa Our Rosa by Mumia Abu-Jamal
For Mumia Abu-Jamal, I am Goldie, his daughter.
For Mumia Abu-Jamal, I am Frances Goldin.
We gather today over 140 years after the birthday of Rosa Luxemburg –
The brilliant thinker, writer, activist and revolutionary who’s memory still burns bright around the world.
As I’ve thought of her this season I wondered – what would she think of the Occupy Wall Street movement here in the U.S.?
Having read some of her political writings and her journal entries from prison, I think I have a taste of her thinking. I think she would reply, in her typical boldness:
“This is a movement? If anything it is the beginnings of a movement; for movements lead to revolutions, or, betrayed, they lead to apparent reforms that often end up in setbacks, especially for the working class and the oppressed.
That’s because capitalism co-opts movements; they buy off leaders, and when that doesn’t work, they bring the iron hand out from under the velvet glove – and crush them. “
Wow – I’d reply, and add: But it’s actually a leaderless movement of mostly unemployed students.
To which Rosa would say something like:
”Aha! I see perhaps two possible outcomes; a) the bourgeois media depicts the entire movement as miscreant, sex friends or drug addicts (and then they crush them); or b) the police spies among them, identify key personalities and offer them lucrative jobs in high finance or some other sector, and once bought off, use them as a wedge against their former comrades. “
Wow, Rosa – that’s a pretty grim picture, I’d say. And she’d answer:
“It’s called class war, brother – not a dinner party! And as many of these activists are unemployed, capital can spare a few shekels to buy off the most advanced layer. “
And, finally, I’d say: Rosa – why are you so done on students? These kids are doing some remarkable things! “
And Rosa would reply:
“Students can spark a movement, as they’ve done all around the world. But can they carry it through? Can they engage the workers? The teachers, the tradesmen, the postal unions, the transit workers – if they can’t, then they can’t really top into a social force that has the potential to stage mass strikes that shuts down production – and that’s all Wall Street – - or any capitalist – - really cares about!“
Me again: “That sounds good, Rosa, but these students“- -
To which she’d interrupt:
“Jamal – c’mon – don’t be a dombkopf! Students – schmudents! First of all, if they’re graduated, they’re not students anymore – they’re unemployed workers! Secondly, years ago, when you were a young guy, there were vast student’s movements – anti-war, pro-black-rights, pro-prisoners’ rights, anti-imperialists, etc., etc. Where are they now? Didn’t they get caught off? “ – - “Oh, and aren’t many of them these kids’ parents? “
To which I’d shut up.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this mental exercise, done with the highest regard and respect for a socialist intellectual and revolutionary: Rosa Luxemburg.
I chose this topic which may not be immediately familiar to you in Germany, which is, in the United States, a subject of endless fascination by much of the population, because it has taken the country by storm.
In the beginning of September, 2011, no such movement existed. But the events of Tahir Square in Egypt, the rising unemployment which left many college students unemployed, and the growing social inequality in American society, as shown by the obese well-being of Wall Street and the bankers, converged in a movement to show deep social dissent with this state of affairs.
When young people, most using cell phones and other instant media, began calling for a protest gathering at the iconic bull sculpture known worldwide as the symbol of the rampaging markets of New York’s Wall Street, hundreds, then thousands swarmed into the streets.
And, like that, a Movement was born.
Within days the call was met by crushes of students, most angry at the bottomless greed of the economic elites – the 1%.
They started the „We Are the 99%!“Chant, and again, within days, similar occupations sprang in Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles – - and beyond.
Within weeks, over 100 city centers, home of the moneyed elites, were occupied.
But what really kicked them into high gear, was when cops in New York, blithely sprayed chemicals into the faces of young women doing nothing more than marching with an anti-capitalist banner. Carried via YouTube, it reached millions, and inspired more to join the protests.
Rosa, I’m convinced, would’ve loved it!
As I write this year’s message from prison, it’s the first time I’ve done so without death sentence.
That’s entirely due to you – and people like you – who have stood with me through thick and thin.
Danke – viel viel Danke – to ALL of you brothers and sisters in Germany, in France, in Spain, in England, in Canada, in India, and yes – - in the United States for making this happen.
As you know, the struggle continues.
This battle ain’t over until we all are free!
Mao used to say “The journey of a thousand leagues begins with one step.“
We have taken this step.
We are one step closer to freedom!
Lang lebe Red Rosa!
FREIHEIT ! Free the Move Prisoners! Free Leonard Peltier!
Dismantle the prison-industrial complex!
Meine Freunden – Bewegung!
Aus der Todeszelle, hier sprecht
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Auf Wiedersehen!
Goldie for Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Frances Goldin for Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Prison and government officials are trying to censor and silence Mumia Abu-Jamal. I stand as one of many Americans who believe that there is tremendous value in his voice being heard. I and others will fight to make sure that both his voice and his body are free.
Here’s a look at what people love and hate about the iPhone 4S from ChangeWave Research.
G.
At the end of a flight from Lismore to Sydney in Australia, this phone started emitting “a significant amount of black smoke, accompanied by a red glow.”
A flight attendant extinguished the smoke and collected the phone for analysis.
The airline, Regional Express (or Rex), then put out a press release explaining what happened under the alarming headline “Mobile Phone Combustion.” It was noticed earlier today by The Register.
The burn mark is apparently right over the battery in the iPhone 4, so something probably caused the battery to overheat.
Nobody was hurt.
The man known for creating the nationally syndicated comic strip The Boondocks in the late 1990s also has his hands in a film being released this weekend. Aaron McGruder, the controversial man with wide-ranging opinions on a vast variety of subjects, co-wrote Red Tails.
The project, financed by filmmaker George Lucas, opened on Friday in theaters nationwide and chronicles the lives of Tuskegee Airmen, a group of black pilots placed in an experimental training program during World War II.
“About two years ago, I got a call from my agent asking if I wanted to meet with Lucas to talk about the script,” McGruder told the Daily Beast. “I was like, ‘Yes, I would!’ I’m a Stars Wars guy and also the son of a military pilot, so it was the best of both worlds for me to do a project like this.”
McGruder was said to be brought on by Lucas to add a fresher, more youthful take on the film.
“That was my biggest contribution to the project, making it more of an action-hero type film,” McGruder told the Daily Beast. “I used my comic strip experience to make the script have a faster pace. There have been other movies on the Tuskegee Airmen, so I wanted to make sure the audience had a different view of these men … this film has something for older people who know the story, and younger people who aren’t so familiar with the story and like action.”
We urge everyone to go and support this film that George Lucas felt was an important enough story to tell, whether Hollywood backed it or not.
The New York Daily News is in hot water with its Twitter followers.
Early Friday (January 20), the newspaper published an article that exemplifies Jay-Z’s “Glory” track, a song dedicated to his newborn daughter, as a long-awaited anthem for Black leaders and family advocates. The piece voices the author’s optimistic opinion on how the Blue Ivy Carter-inspired composition might impact Black fathers.
“A lot of other babies are going to benefit. Because Jay-Z’s ecstatic reaction to being a dad will be the strongest boost yet to a growing movement in the Black community encouraging responsible fatherhood,” wrote writer Joanne Molloy.
Though Molly’s post might’ve been written with well intentions to address a large social and structural issue within the culture, it stirred a lot of controversy for the New York City-based publication, especially after The Daily News attached this message along with the link to the article on it’s twitter:
Two hours later, after receiving many replies reflecting an outraged public reaction,the newspaper apologized for failing to classify the tweet as opinion-based.
According to the author, 72 percent of African-Americans are raised without a dad. Jay-Z frequently mentions his father leaving his family for good, while he was only nine years old.
ARTICLE BELOW:
Blue Ivy Carter is one rich baby. With her father Shawn (Jay-Z) Carter worth $450 million and her mother, Beyonce, the highest paid female performer, Blue will be able to have anything money can buy.
But she is also rich in love, as Jay-Z exults in his song “Glory.”
The best part? A lot of other babies are going to benefit. Because Jay-Z’s ecstatic reaction to being a dad will be the strongest boost yet to a growing movement in the black community encouraging responsible fatherhood.
“When pop died, I didn’t cry; didn’t know him that well,” Jay-Z once rapped.
“This sounds cold,” he explains in his riveting memoir “Decoded.” “But the truth is that my father left my family for good when I was young.”
Nine years old, to be exact.
“Three months after we had our first conversation in 20 years, he died. … I realized that yeah, of course every father that bounced had a reason. I didn’t excuse him for leaving his kids, but I started to understand.”
And — as he’s rapped — to forgive. And to move on to be a great father himself. And in doing so, encourage other men to do the same.
The black sociologist Dr. Edward Franklin Frazier said way back in the 1930s that the cruel tearing apart of slave families would haunt us for generations, and it has.
Seventy-two percent of African-American children are raised by a single parent — usually the mother, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Turning this situation around has been about as easy as steering a cruise ship through a U-turn in a storm.
Leaders of the black families movement were cheered by Jay-Z’s anthem to fatherhood.
“Jay-Z is opening his heart and exposing the raw emotion behind his growing up fatherless, and his conviction to never let his daughter suffer the same fate,” wrote mother Denene Millner on her popular site mybrownbaby.blogspot.com.
Millner’s husband Nick Chiles is writing the book “Fatherhood” with President Obama’s Fatherhood Initiative rep Etan Thomas, the Atlanta Hawks center.
“This is a condition that our community specifically suffers greatly from, and the idea that this rapper would pen a song expressing his joy of being a daddy and his vow to do right by (Blue Ivy) sends a pretty powerful message to those who need it most,” she said.
Jay-Z isn’t the first artist to talk about African-American dads stepping up. “The Wire” star Tray Chaney just released a song called “Fatherhood” on iTunes, in which he raps, “See where I’m from, the fathers hardly be around. Mothers working two jobs just so she can feed the kids. I swear I’d rather die than be labelled as the guy who couldn’t hold his own looking out for his fam…”
Chaney’s music video director Lamar Tyler, who has his own website BlackandMarriedwithKids.com, shows father after father with their kids in a montage that’ll make you cry. But it will also give you hope that more men will realize that, as President Obama said, “what makes you a man is not the ability to have a child, but the courage to raise one.”
Jay-Z’s joy could encourage a whole generation.
There is no longer a need for dire predictions, hand-wringing, or apprehension about losing a generation of black boys. It is too late. In education, employment, economics, incarceration, health, housing, and parenting, we have lost a generation of young black men. The question that remains is will we lose the next two or three generations, or possibly every generation of black boys hereafter to the streets, negative media, gangs, drugs, poor education, unemployment, father absence, crime, violence and death.
-Phillip Jackson
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