The Liberator Magazine | Blog

On (r)evolution

2012-05-21T05:00:00.000-04:00

Activist-scholars Grace Lee Boggs and Angela Davis explored and (re)defined the concept and practice of revolution at the kickoff to UC Berkeley's Empowering Women of Color Conference, held in March 2012.

"To re-imagine revolution is an opportunity and a challenge to all of us..And I see my visit to as an opportunity to spark that discussion among many people. I think the question of how we make our livings is a very crucial question today. It can't be answered only in material terms. People are also asking, 'How do we make a life that's worth living?' I think profound philosophical questions are at stake."

"...it’s in fact when we stop marching and are left to truly deal with each other, that we begin to move."
-Grace Lee Boggs

"Love is part of what unites us in an interdependence politics."
-Angela Davis

Talking about "Booker's Place", and U.S. Congressman Donald Payne

2012-05-05T14:05:00.000-04:00

Democracy Now! now?

I have trouble these days figuring out how I belong to the Democracy Now! community, and subsequent trouble choosing to visit it very often. Do I fit under their "African-American history" interest section? Or their "racism" section? But these recent clips are pretty good. They introduce the Booker's Place clip with some good footage from the aftermath of the L.A. Riots. The piece in general includes an interview with Booker Wright's granddaughter, whose family research was a catalyst for the film. In the piece on the late Donald Payne, his brother shares some old stories that lend amazing insight towards understanding the whole person.

Film "Booker's Place" Tells Story of Black Mississippi
Waiter Who Lost Life By Speaking Out

Info: "In 1965, Booker Wright, an African-American waiter in Greenwood, Mississippi, dared to be interviewed by NBC about racism in America, a decision that forever changed his and his family's lives. He would later be beaten by police, and ultimately be murdered. Wright's story is told in the new documentary film, "Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story," a collaboration between our two guests: co-producer, Yvette Johnson, Wright's grand-daughter; and director Raymond DeFelitta, whose father, Frank DeFelitta, originally filmed the interview with Wright and later said he regretted it."

Rep. Donald Payne: Remembering New Jersey's First
African-American Member of Congress

Info: "Representative Donald Payne, the first ever African-American congressman from New Jersey, died Tuesday at the age of 77 from complications of colon cancer. The former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus was in his tweleveth term in the House. In 1988, Payne explained his desire to break the colorline in Congress saying, "I want to be a congressman to serve as a role model for the young people I talk to on the Newark street corners ... I want them to see there are no barriers to achievement. I want to give them a reason to try." That year, Payne handily defeated his Republican opponent, Michael Webb, and achieved his dream. In a statement shortly after Payne's death, President Obama said Payne had "made it his mission to fight for working families." We discuss Payne's legacy with his brother, William Payne, and Larry Hamm, the New Jersey chairman of the People's Organization for Progress."

NY / Lounge Around at Zion, Saturday

2012-05-01T05:00:00.003-04:00

A directory of people of color who are organic farmers, food & land activists, agriculturalists, and even vintners

2012-04-30T06:00:00.001-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

Connecting With Black Farmers
by Sawdayah Brownlee

I’ve stumbled upon a directory of people of color who are organic farmers, food & land activists, agriculturalists, and even vintners.

Around this time last year I imagined that during the summer of 2011 I would get to sit at the feet of elders and gather knowledge on what is now termed "organic farming," "sustainable agriculture," "permaculture," called by older African people, simply, growing good food. I dreamed of learning all these things from the best people to learn them from: living testimonies to indigenous methods that are naturally sustainable and organic (so no need to indicate this in a title).

This year, I get a head start on selecting a person or group to apprentice under. The extensive but rolling list of people and groups on this map was compiled by Natasha Bowens and the Color of Food coalition.

The site hosts such organizations and farmers as the Backyard Gardener’s Network in New Orleans, LA and the Southeastern African American Farmers Organic Network (SAAFON), replete with novices and experienced growers who have proclaimed agency in what kind of food they eat and how it will be produced. Most who are listed also own the land they work.

NY / Lounge Around at Zion

2012-04-26T12:00:00.001-04:00

Did the Trayvon Martin shooting really take place?

2012-04-18T12:30:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

It begins like a scandal. As if a bomb has been dropped on a peaceful, rural setting. In one moment, life as usual; in the next, the resurrection of Jim Crow. The tranquility of yesterday is suddenly pierced by an unthinkable crime. Outrage is seen everywhere. Next come the calls for sobriety and objectivity. The best technologies are implemented to reconstruct the shooting. Massive amounts of speculation and analysis converge on the events. 3-D graphics are used to calculate bullet trajectories. Witnesses are demanded and even if all they have to say is that they heard a gunshot.

Yet none of this has very much to do with serving justice, as it is not the intention of the media to try suspects or protect victims. The media is there to provide entertainment and empty information. This is why—with time—the focus veers away from the concrete to an exultation of the entire situation itself. Proceedings and developments begin tripping over one another as they vie for visibility. The persons involved become stock characters in a melodrama. The passions of the audience are exploited and before long, the underlying issues of racism or criminality become eclipsed by the barrage of information about racism or criminality. The story itself becomes the primary fixation not the issues fueling it similar to when an animal in the path of a speeding car becomes entranced by the luminosity of the headlights, forgetting the reality behind them.

The whole system of news crawls, headlines, 911 tapes, images, interviews, pundits, and protest footage generates a superstructure of confusion. Any conceivability of the original crime becomes ungraspable. A deluge of information yet everything remains tentative and uncertain. We know so much that we know nothing at all. The story exhausts itself; there are no new details, development stalls. The story collapses under its own weight and falls into the sea of the mundane that already surrounds everyday life. It is here that the event loses all significance and becomes merely one more bit of data. Even when the murder is tried successfully in court, the perpetrator found guilty and sentenced accordingly, the implications of the original crime are forgotten. The same is true if the courts fail and let the criminal go free: either we will have already lost all interest or we will riot and then lose all interest. Months later some of us will look back and wonder—did the Trayvon Martin shooting really take place?

Dr. Greg Carr on American History TV / Black Movements and Memory

2012-04-18T04:00:00.000-04:00

The Cats of Mirikitani {film}

2012-04-01T04:00:00.000-04:00

Info: "Eighty year old Japanese-American painter, Jimmy Mirikitani, lives on the streets of New York near the World Trade Center, when 9/11 devastates the neighborhood. Befriended by filmmaker Linda Hattendorf, she persuades Jimmy to move in with her, while seeking a permanent home for him. This incredibly moving, ultimately affirming documentary delves into the California-born, Japan-raised artist's unique life which developed his resilient personality, and fuel his two main subjects; cats and internment camps. It weaves its poetic way through the fall-out of war, racism, poverty, homelessness, citizenship, betrayal, family & society, and art's facility for providing sustenance to the embattled spirit."

NY / "The Societies of Fine Art and Collections" at FiveMyles gallery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn

2012-03-17T04:00:00.000-04:00

7pm Saturday, March 17
FiveMyles gallery
558 St. Johns Place

We're partnering with The Societies of Fine Art and Collections, FiveMyles gallery, the African American Art Collective, Breukelen Coffee House, and Spicy Wild Mango for a presentation of artwork from Mambu Badu, Marcellous Lovelace, and Robert Trujillo. Proceeds from art sales will benefit The Liberator Magazine.

Dr. K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau / "The Ancestors and Our Connection to Them: The Real Power of Being"

2012-03-16T04:00:00.001-04:00

Info: "Dr. Fu-Kiau Bunseki was Born in Minianga, Democratic Republic of Congo, and is one of the most distinguished scholars of African culture. He was educated in both Western and African systems of thought. His degrees are in the areas of Cultural Anthropology (B.A.), School Administration (M.Ed.), Library Science (M.S.), and in Education & Community Development (Ph.D.). He has been initiated into three major African education systems (Lemba, Kimkimba and Kimpasi) and founded one of the first indigenous research centers in Africa, Luyalungunu Lwa Kumba-Nsi Institute, which was dedicated to exploring and documenting traditionally accumulated Kongo teachings for the post-independent society and its institutions. Dr. Bunseki is considered the Father of Bantu-Kongo modern school of thought. He has published numerous books and articles on African culture. A leading lecturer at universities and cultural institutions in the United States of America where he travels extensively sharing his knowledge and wisdom, Dr. Fu-Kiau lives in Boston. His work has taken him to many parts of the world, to Brazil (Brasilian Federal University of Bahia), Germany (Museum Kunst Palast, Dusseldorf) and Israel (Hafia University). He has more recently and in different locations, run a wonderful full four day empowering program An Unusual Deep Insight Retreat for Self & Community Healing Power based on Bantu-Kongo Cosmology."

Meet The Natives [tv]

2012-02-23T03:05:00.000-05:00

Wiki: "Meet the Natives: USA is an American reality television series that premiered on the Travel Channel on November 29, 2009.[1] The series follows five tribesmen from the island of Tanna, Vanuatu, as they travel to the United States on an adventure to explore America and the American way of life. During their visit to America they also have a special message of peace and kindness that they wish to relay"

A Love Letter to Educators

2012-02-21T05:00:00.000-05:00

{image: Aline Black, 1906–1974}

A Love Letter to Educators
by Hector Calderon

I once heard the poet Saul Williams say that, "Love is the Soul's Imagination." This definition of love has always moved me. Love requires an act of creativity, an act of invention from a deep place at the center of our being. It is from this place that I write this love letter to you. As an educator you have taken on the noblest cause in the world: the liberation of the human race. Liberation defined as the process of becoming fully human.

As an educator for many years, I have come to know, as I am sure you know, that schools are not just schools. Schools are flashes of the human spirit. They are vehicles by which the soul of every teacher and every student come in to the material world. Schools are not just schools. Schools are old growth forests of the mind, watersheds of thought. Schools are not just schools. Schools are ecosystems of the academic and spiritual possibilities.

But we also know that schools are places that can perpetuate lies, that can affirm myths, and oppress the human spirit. When I think about race and racism as the power of an illusion that has been perpetuated in sacred spaces such as the classroom, I think about my own experience as a young person.

When I first entered a school in the United States, the first thing I was told was that I "needed to learn English and lose my Spanish." Inherent in that statement was the understanding that in order to be accepted I needed to become more "American." But as a kid, I always wondered who was the ideal American that I should model myself to. The answer became very evident by the people I read about in books, the people I saw as teachers, the people I saw in television, and the leaders I saw in power. They were all white.

I remember being very conflicted because nowhere in books or in public spaces did I read about people who looked like me or see people like me. I thought that in order to be accepted I needed to lose everything that made me who I was up to that point. Cultural assimilation became tantamount to cultural annihilation. In my formative years I experienced education as the tool for indocrination rather than "the practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world," as the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire would put it.

I offer a slice of my experience as a student to remind you of a teacher's first dream: to make a difference in the world. I still believe that true education offers us the best chance to change the world within a generation. Classrooms are sacred places where each generation must discover their full humanity.

While it is true that we must teach invaluable language skills, we must also teach young people to use their skills to develop a language of understanding that bridges all cultures. While it is true that we must teach them critical research strategies, we must also teach them to use their insights to serve their communities. While we must cultivate a scientific mind in our students, I would also teach them to use their knowledge to cure diseases of the body and spirit. While we must immerse students in mathematical ideas, we must also help students create equations that lead to equality for all people. While we must teach them artistic skills, we must, more importantly, teach them to use their imaginations to create the "Imagined Nation."

Sizer Fellow Hector Calderon is a co-founder of El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, a public high school established in Brooklyn, New York in 1993 through a joint initiative by the New York City Board of Education and El Puente.

On the value of solitude in 2012

2012-02-17T05:00:00.001-05:00

The Rise of the New Groupthink
(SOURCE: NYTimes)

[...] {related: David Foster Wallace, On Reading}

Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.

One explanation for these findings is that introverts are comfortable working alone — and solitude is a catalyst to innovation. As the influential psychologist Hans Eysenck observed, introversion fosters creativity by “concentrating the mind on the tasks in hand, and preventing the dissipation of energy on social and sexual matters unrelated to work.” In other words, a person sitting quietly under a tree in the backyard, while everyone else is clinking glasses on the patio, is more likely to have an apple land on his head. (Newton was one of the world’s great introverts: William Wordsworth described him as “A mind for ever/ Voyaging through strange seas of Thought, alone.”)

Solitude has long been associated with creativity and transcendence. “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible,” Picasso said. A central narrative of many religions is the seeker — Moses, Jesus, Buddha — who goes off by himself and brings profound insights back to the community.

Culturally, we’re often so dazzled by charisma that we overlook the quiet part of the creative process. Consider Apple. In the wake of Steve Jobs’s death, we’ve seen a profusion of myths about the company’s success. Most focus on Mr. Jobs’s supernatural magnetism and tend to ignore the other crucial figure in Apple’s creation: a kindly, introverted engineering wizard, Steve Wozniak, who toiled alone on a beloved invention, the personal computer.

Rewind to March 1975: Mr. Wozniak believes the world would be a better place if everyone had a user-friendly computer. This seems a distant dream — most computers are still the size of minivans, and many times as pricey. But Mr. Wozniak meets a simpatico band of engineers that call themselves the Homebrew Computer Club. The Homebrewers are excited about a primitive new machine called the Altair 8800. Mr. Wozniak is inspired, and immediately begins work on his own magical version of a computer. Three months later, he unveils his amazing creation for his friend, Steve Jobs. Mr. Wozniak wants to give his invention away free, but Mr. Jobs persuades him to co-found Apple Computer.

The story of Apple’s origin speaks to the power of collaboration. Mr. Wozniak wouldn’t have been catalyzed by the Altair but for the kindred spirits of Homebrew. And he’d never have started Apple without Mr. Jobs.

But it’s also a story of solo spirit. If you look at how Mr. Wozniak got the work done — the sheer hard work of creating something from nothing — he did it alone. Late at night, all by himself.

Intentionally so. In his memoir, Mr. Wozniak offers this guidance to aspiring inventors:

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me ... they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone .... I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone... Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

And yet. The New Groupthink has overtaken our workplaces, our schools and our religious institutions. Anyone who has ever needed noise-canceling headphones in her own office or marked an online calendar with a fake meeting in order to escape yet another real one knows what I’m talking about. Virtually all American workers now spend time on teams and some 70 percent inhabit open-plan offices, in which no one has “a room of one’s own.” During the last decades, the average amount of space allotted to each employee shrank 300 square feet, from 500 square feet in the 1970s to 200 square feet in 2010.

[...]

SOME teamwork is fine and offers a fun, stimulating, useful way to exchange ideas, manage information and build trust.

But it’s one thing to associate with a group in which each member works autonomously on his piece of the puzzle; it’s another to be corralled into endless meetings or conference calls conducted in offices that afford no respite from the noise and gaze of co-workers. Studies show that open-plan offices make workers hostile, insecure and distracted. They’re also more likely to suffer from high blood pressure, stress, the flu and exhaustion. And people whose work is interrupted make 50 percent more mistakes and take twice as long to finish it.

[...]

MY point is not that man is an island. Life is meaningless without love, trust and friendship.

And I’m not suggesting that we abolish teamwork. Indeed, recent studies suggest that influential academic work is increasingly conducted by teams rather than by individuals. (Although teams whose members collaborate remotely, from separate universities, appear to be the most influential of all.) The problems we face in science, economics and many other fields are more complex than ever before, and we’ll need to stand on one another’s shoulders if we can possibly hope to solve them.

But even if the problems are different, human nature remains the same. And most humans have two contradictory impulses: we love and need one another, yet we crave privacy and autonomy.

To harness the energy that fuels both these drives, we need to move beyond the New Groupthink and embrace a more nuanced approach to creativity and learning. Our offices should encourage casual, cafe-style interactions, but allow people to disappear into personalized, private spaces when they want to be alone. Our schools should teach children to work with others, but also to work on their own for sustained periods of time. And we must recognize that introverts like Steve Wozniak need extra quiet and privacy to do their best work.

Before Mr. Wozniak started Apple, he designed calculators at Hewlett-Packard, a job he loved partly because HP made it easy to chat with his colleagues. Every day at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., management wheeled in doughnuts and coffee, and people could socialize and swap ideas. What distinguished these interactions was how low-key they were. For Mr. Wozniak, collaboration meant the ability to share a doughnut and a brainwave with his laid-back, poorly dressed colleagues — who minded not a whit when he disappeared into his cubicle to get the real work done. (source)

Choosing a life mate / "10 ways to avoid marrying the wrong person"

2012-02-13T05:00:00.001-05:00

10 Ways to Avoid Marrying the Wrong Person
(SOURCE: Mental Health 4 Muslims)

There is a right way and a wrong way to get to know someone for marriage. The wrong way is to get caught up in the excitement and nuance of a budding relationship and in the process completely forget to ask the critical questions that help determine compatibility. One of the biggest mistakes that many young Muslims make is rushing into marriage without properly and thoroughly getting to know someone. A common myth is that the duration of a courtship is an accurate enough measure of how compatible two people are. The logic follows that the longer you speak with someone, the better you will know them. The problem with that premise is that no consideration is given to how that time is spent. Increasingly, young Muslim couples are engaging in “halal dating,” which is basically socializing with each other in the company of friends and/or family. This includes going out to dinner, watching a movie, playing some sport or other leisure activity, etc. Depending on the family or culture, conversations are either minimal & chaperoned or worse, unrestricted and unsupervised. When you consider these limitations it makes one wonder when exactly, if ever at all, would the critical conversations take place? Unfortunately, for many, the answer is never and they live to suffer the consequences. If you or someone you know is in the “getting to know someone” phase, the following guide offers advice on exactly what to look for and avoid:

1) Do Not Marry Potential: Oftentimes men consider marrying a woman hoping she never changes while a woman considers marrying a man she hopes she can change. This is the wrong approach on both accounts. Don’t assume that you can change a person after you’re married to them or that they will reach their potential. There is no guarantee, after all, that those changes will be for the better. In fact, it’s often for the worse. If you can’t accept someone or imagine living with them as they are then don’t marry them. These differences can include a number of things such as ideological or practical differences in religion, habits, hygiene, communication skills, etc.

2) Choose Character over Chemistry: While chemistry and attraction are no doubt important, character precedes them both. A famous quote follows, “Chemistry ignites the fire, but character keeps it burning.” The idea of falling “in love” should never be the sole reason for marrying someone; it is very easy to confuse infatuation and lust for love. The most important character traits to look for include humility, kindness, responsibility, & happiness. Here’s a breakdown of each trait:

» Humility: The humble person never makes demands of people but rather always does right by them. They put their values and principles above convenience and comfort. They are slow to anger, are modest, and avoid materialism.

» Kindness: The kind person is the quintessential giver. They seek to please and minimize the pain of others. To know if a person is a giver, observe how they treat their family, siblings, and parents. Do they have gratitude towards their parents for all that they’ve done for them? If not, then know that they will never appreciate what you do for them. How do they treat people they don’t have to be kind towards (i.e. waiters, sales associates, employees, etc)? How do they spend their money? How do they deal with anger; their own anger and their reaction to someone else’s anger?

» Responsibility: A responsible person has stability in their finances, relationships, job, and character. You can you rely on this person and trust what they say.

» Happiness: A happy person is content with their portion in life. They feel good about themselves and good about their life. They focus on what they have rather than on what they don’t have. They very rarely complain.

3) Do Not Neglect The Emotional Needs of Your Partner: Both men and women have emotional needs and in order for a partnership to be successful those needs must be mutually met. The fundamental emotional need of a woman is to be loved. The fundamental emotional need of a man is to be respected and appreciated. To make a woman feel loved give her the three AAAs: Attention, Affection, & Appreciation. To make a man feel loved give him the three RRRs: Respect, Reassurance, & Relief. It is the obligation of each partner to make sure the other is happy and this extends to intimacy as well. As long as each partner is fulfilled by the emotional needs of the other, the intimate relationship will thrive. When a man takes seriously the emotional needs of his wife she will feel more encouraged to fulfill his sexual desires. Likewise, when a woman takes seriously the emotional needs of her husband he will feel more encouraged to give her the affection, love and appreciation she wants from him. Working together in this way encourages both giving and receiving.

4) Avoid Opposing Life Plans: In marriage you can either grow together or grow apart. Sharing a common purpose in life will increase the chance that you will grow together.

» You must know what the person is into. In other words, what are they ultimately passionate about? Then ask yourself, “Do I respect this passion?” “Do I respect what they are into?”

» The more specifically you define yourself, i.e., your values, your beliefs, your lifestyle, the better chance you have of finding your life partner, your soul mate, the one you are most compatible with.

» Remember, before you decide who to take along on a trip, you should first figure out your destination.

5) Avoid Pre-Marital Sexual/Physical Activity:

Recognize that there is incredible wisdom in why God has ordered us to refrain from intimacy before marriage; they are to prevent great harms as well as to keep sacred what is the most blessed part of a relationship between a man and a woman.
Aside from the obvious spiritual consequences, when a relationship gets physical before its time, important issues like character, life philosophy, and compatibility go to the wayside. Consequently, everything is romanticized and it becomes difficult to even remember the important issues let alone talk about them.
Intellectual commitment must be established before emotional or sexual commitment.

6) Avoid Lack of Emotional Connection: There are four questions that you must answer YES to:

» Do I respect and admire this person? What specifically do I respect and admire about this person?

» Do I trust this person? Can I rely on them? Do I trust their judgment? Do I trust their word? Can I believe what they say?

» Do I feel Safe? Do I feel emotionally safe with this person? Can I be vulnerable? Can I be myself? Can I be open? Can I express myself?

» Do I feel calm and at peace with this person?

If the answer is “I don’t know, I’m not sure, etc.” keep evaluating until you know for sure and truly understand how you feel. If you don’t feel safe now, you won’t feel safe when you are married. If you don’t trust now, this won’t change when you are married!

7) Pay Attention to Your Own Emotional Anxiety: Choosing someone you don’t feel safe with emotionally is not a good recipe for a long-lasting and loving marriage. Feeling emotionally safe is the foundation of a strong and healthy marriage. When you don’t feel safe, you can’t express your feelings and opinions. Learn how to identify whether you are in an abusive relationship. If you feel you always have to monitor what you say, if you are with someone and you feel you can’t really express yourself and are always walking on eggshells, then it’s very likely you are in an abusive relationship. Look for the following things:

» Controlling behavior: This includes controlling the way you act, the way you think, the way you dress, the way you wear your hair/hijab and the way you spend your time. Know the difference between suggestions and demands. Demands are an expression of control and if the demands are implied, than you must do it or there will be consequences. All of these are clear indications of abusive personalities.

» Anger issues: This is someone who raises their voice on a regular basis, who is angry, gets angry at you, uses anger against you, uses put downs, and curses at you, etc. You don’t have to put up with this type of treatment. Many people who tolerate this behavior usually come from abusive backgrounds. If this is the case with you or someone you know, get help right away. Deal with those issues before getting married or before even thinking about getting married.

8) Beware of Lack of Openness In Your Partner: Many couples make the mistake of not putting everything on the table for discussion from the onset. Ask yourself, “What do I need to know to be absolutely certain I want to marry this person?” “What bothers me about this person or the relationship?” It’s very important to identify what’s bothering you, things that concern you, and things you are afraid to bring up for discussion. Then you must have an honest discussion about them. This is a great way to test the strength of your relationship. Bringing up issues when there’s conflict is a great opportunity to really evaluate how well you communicate, negotiate, and work together as a team. When people get into power struggles and blame each other, it’s an indication they don’t work well as a team. Also important is being vulnerable around each other. Ask deep questions of each other and see how your partner responds. How do they handle it? Are they defensive? Do they attack? Do they withdraw? Do they get annoyed? Do they blame you? Do they ignore it? Do they hide or rationalize it? Don’t just listen to what they say but watch for how they say it!

9) Beware of Avoiding Personal Responsibility: It’s very important to remember no one else is responsible for your happiness. Many people make the mistake of thinking someone else will fulfill them and make their life better and that’s their reason for getting married. People fail to realize that if they are unhappy as a single person, they will continue to be miserable when they are married. If you are currently not happy with yourself, don’t like yourself, don’t like the direction your life is going now, it’s important to take responsibility for that now and work on improving those areas of your life before considering marriage. Don’t bring these issues into your marriage and hope your partner will fix them.

10) Watch Out For Lack of Emotional Health and Availability In Your Potential Partner: Many people choose partners that are not emotionally healthy or available. One huge problem is when a partner is unable to balance the emotional ties to family members, the marriage ends up having 3 (or more) people in it rather than two. An example of this would be if a man is overly dependent on his mother and brings that relationship into the marriage; this is no doubt a recipe for disaster. Also important to consider are the following:

» Avoid people who are emotionally empty inside. These include people who don’t like themselves because they lack the ability to be emotionally available. They are always preoccupied with their deficiencies, insecurities, and negative thoughts. They are in a perpetual fight with depression, never feel good, are isolated, are critical and judgmental; tend to not have any close friends, and often distrust people or are afraid of them. Another clear indication about them is they always feel their needs are not getting met; they have a sense of entitlement and feel angry when they feel people should take care of them and they don’t. They feel burdened by other people’s needs and feel resentment towards them. These people can not be emotionally available to build healthy relationships.

» Addictions can also limit the level of availability of the partner to build a strong emotional relationship. Never marry an addict. Addictions are not limited to drugs and alcohol. They can be about addictions and dependency on work, internet, hobbies, sports, shopping, money, power, status, materialism, etc. When someone has an addiction, they will not and can not be emotionally available to develop an intimate relationship with you!

Additional Points to Consider:

» The fact is no one looks 25 forever. Ultimately, we love the person we marry for more than their appearance. When we get to know someone we love and admire, we’ll love them for their inner beauty and overall essence.

» Once we find someone, we consciously or subconsciously want so badly for it all to work that we decide not to question or see what is clearly in front of our eyes: they were rude to the waiter, speaks ill of others, is rude to you, etc. We don’t stop to ask, “What does all of this mean about their character?”

» Never separate someone from their family, background, education, belief system, etc. Asking clear questions can clarify this. Ask questions like, “What does it mean to have a simple lifestyle?” “What are your expectations of marriage?” “How would you help around the house?” Compare your definition with theirs.

» Be flexible. Be open-minded!

» Giving in a happy marriage should not be confused with martyrdom. It should be about taking pleasure and seeing the other person as happy because of your connection with them.

» Morality and spirituality are the qualities that truly define someone in addition to beauty, money, and health. The morally upright and spiritual person will stand by your side during adversity and hardship. If someone isn’t God-conscience and doesn’t take themselves into account with God then why should you expect them to fulfill their rights owed to you? The ideal partner is someone who considers giving a gain and not causing a loss. Having a mutual and shared spiritual relationship will foster a successful marriage. Furthermore, a successful marriage is one that keeps the laws of family purity which require a certain degree of self-control and self-discipline, as well as the belief that the physical side of the relationship includes the spiritual and emotional side as well. Finding commonality and balance between the spiritual and emotional aspects of a relationship is a strong key to a healthy and thriving marriage. (source)

In no particular order, the mirror in three-part discord

2012-01-27T05:00:00.000-05:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

In no particular order, the mirror in three-part discord
by Ruby Amanze

a. so you think you’re better than me, because of longitude and latitude, and the way your tongue does those bending, clicking tricks?
and surely you think, i must think, i’m better than you because of a colder longitude and latitude, and the way my tongue bounces of ‘t’s’ and drags out syllables?
you’re superior because you can stomach the taste of garden eggs, rock hard fish and don’t require bottled water because you can stomach the taste of the earth?
you laugh because mosquito repellent and sun-block are for the thin skinned ‘darkies’ who have lost the sun and therefore all strength in their outer layer. isn’t that how you see me? weak?
you think i have no right to this land? that i’m a foreigner. an alien even? that you can question my intentions when i say ‘home’ or ‘we’ or claim ‘Biafran’, ‘cause in your opinion we’re far from the same:

you’re african and i’m negro and we all know which one came first.

b. nah. not today. how many African girls you know with a scattering of concentrated melanin gems all over their face? they’re fucking awesome actually. and mostly i do understand you, especially when you’re talking about how little you perceive i understand. i hear. i know. and my british tongue will retaliate in a philly meets brooklyn dialect. my blood is deep red with allegiance. but it’s not for you to know or measure. an allegiance to nigeria. to Africa. to the diaspora. to a pan African identity. this negro african brit likes being a brit african negro. it’s everything i know and am. and finally, finally it has become okay.

c. i’m sorry i can’t understand what it is that you’re saying. even when it’s english sometimes, but you’re speaking so fast and throwing in pidgin and i just get lost because my ears don’t hear those sounds well. i’m sorry i only have three nigerian outfits (and only one is wedding appropriate) and i’m sorry i hate all the ones you try to give me and cut them up to wear with jeans instead. i’m sorry for my yellow pepper skin that isn’t dark enough to blend in with the masses, and i’m sorry for my tongue that shames me every time. and the way i walk. and the way i carry my arms or move my neck. and my freckles. lord only knows, i’m so sorry for my being.

Microcosmos le Peuple de L'herbe / The People of the Grass [film]

2012-01-19T05:01:00.000-05:00

IMDB: "1996. A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching. Written by Will Gilbert"

On Tupac Shakur, compassion, faith, justice, and the spiritual art of persona

2012-01-17T09:01:00.000-05:00

Creative statement: "Not only one of the most socially aware musicians ever, but also a huge inspiration for change and progress.Tupac Shakur is one of the most influential people on the planet, even after his life. I've compiled these clips to share with you his great wisdom on life and his strong message that still resonates because of its purity."

"What makes you feel vulnerable?" / The power of vulnerability

2012-01-16T09:01:00.001-05:00

A great supplement to the previously featured Ayi Kwei Armah lecture on "Our Awakening", here Dr. Brene Brown shares her story of how she (stubbornly) came to embrace the redefinition of her "breakdown" as a "spiritual awakening", as well as her sociological and anecdotal evidence helping define the psychological and spiritual value of vulnerability (and empathy). Good stuff.

Info: "Brene Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share."

On loving without fear / "Fear is blinding and it is the antithesis of freedom. I know this now more than ever"

2011-12-30T10:01:00.002-05:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

What follows is a mid-stream excerpt from an e-conversation that is currently underway between KammyD and ElectricLady on, simply, loving and loving without fear with this quote as the catalyst:

"Relationships are never easy--nothing in which the sacred and the profane exist in such dynamic tension ever is--but for African peoples they are an act of revolution, gospels of defiant optimism, ancestral duets in two part harmonies that say: We are still here, in spite of everything, willing to try and build together, grow together, love together, and struggle together for an open future for our children that we can feel, but can't see."
-Ádìsá Ájámú

KammyD: I know you'll feel me on the simplicity of this. I just listened to Jay-Z's "Party Life" from his American Gangster album and every time I come up on this part of his second verse, I’m always like ... yes! It's a real simple hood formula. Reciprocity at its most basic level. I'm this -- and he’s that.

I'm on her bra strap, she's on my dick
Ain't nothin' wrong with that, that's my biiiiitch
I be the boss of that, I'm on her shit
So all you niggas fall back, I'll split ya wig
She's my little quarterback ....ya dig?
Cause I'm all that in the sack ....ya, ya dig?
I spoiled her
Foiled it if you fakin', Jack
She's used to million-dollar vacations
Fuck you all gonna do with that?

I mean really. If this was the formula I was working with? I'd be straight. LOL And then juxtapose his lyrics with Ayi Kwei Armah’s words: "Not merely taking, not merely offering. Giving, but only to those from whom we receive in equal measure. Receiving, but only from those we give in reciprocal measure. How easy, how just, the way." It’s so simple.

ElectricLady: It’s so funny because I love this album! I’m talking ‘bout I used to listen to this song in particular EVERY day for a LONG time! lol! And I’m right with you on the second verse. It always left me feeling like, yea this is Jay Z's grown man swagg cuz he is SO braggadocios about EXACTLY how he is holding wifey down. When he says "I'm on her sheeeeeeet!" it's like WHOA! He takes ALL of the things that folks would say on some negative tip about a Brother being in-love and he flips it … he ACKNOWLEDGES and is like yea I’m COOL with being on her bra-strap! lol! I definitely remember that saying being a negative thing that folks would say to Brothers who they felt were "sweating" a Sister i.e. showing love.

What’s most interesting I think is that I never was able to see it as something I wanted from a man simply because I didn’t even think it would be possible! For shame, in hindsight. So, I’m with you: This is all it has to be about.

For example, I was feeling like there was some distance between me and my love interest at the time so I was like you know what? I gotta get this off my chest so I wrote an email and then I sent it to him. But then I was soaking in the tub and the spirit basically told me that I really have to stop trying to explain myself to people and sell the idea of me to potential partners. My email wasn't accusatory, wasn’t asking him for anything, not complaining. I basically identified the fact that I noticed we hadn’t talked in a while, that I was worried that maybe I did something that might have created space between us, that I enjoy his company, that I’m not trying to control him or make him "mine," but was hopeful we could spend time when time and circumstances permitted themselves, et cetera.

No reply.

*sigh*

KammyD: I feel you and that's exactly it. I hadn't embraced the concept as something I wanted from a love interest either. I mean, I heard it, loved it, gave Jay his props for having his swagg in just the right dose that made it appealing, but totally dismissed it as something that would exist in the realm of reality. So it was weird because even though I acknowledged the appeal of it and the simplicity, somehow I still managed to distance myself from it ... the possibility of it. It's almost like I was saying to myself that it couldn't be that easy ... or it won't be that easy. For me. Like it has to be more complex than that ...

And if it did happen it was on some possessive ish or a little too much in some area or another, or otherwise, inherently imbalanced. Or, it was on some lukewarm, no chemistry tip where that mess doesn't even matter anyway. But paradoxically, I would cleave to Armah's words as a standard because they, to me, encompass the most profound definition of reciprocity that I've come across to date ... and it's like, they're essentially saying the same thing! One is more direct and brash, like you said -- this is how I hold wifey down AND how she holds me down. And this is our back and forth and give and take. The other is more abstract, but direct nonetheless; but it's like we need both, you know?

So when you said that the spirit basically told you to stop trying to explain yourself/sell the idea of yourself like with your love interest at the time -- I think it totally goes along with what Armah was saying specifically. Man, I find myself doing the same exact thing. Like, let me send this dude a perfectly reasoned and rational treatise so that he will *see*! And so I come back to his quote like a devotional. Like, in the instances where it's at the forefront of my mind, *the way* is so simple and clear ... and like the quote [above] with the ancestral duets ... the two-part harmonies ... it's like we must continue to fine-tune our roles in this epic dance so that we can continue ... sure-footed and without half-steppin! (even if, at first, the function it serves is to recognize when others are half-steppin, or not sure-footed and then respond accordingly). The first step -- huge step -- for me, is realizing that such a dynamic is possible. I'mma start with that because I never thought it so. And go from there.

ElectricLady: It’s wild though because it’s like really though? What the hell is wrong with people? Then, I realize that wait ... we’re in Babylon. And so ALL things relate like we're in Babylon. Damn near every aspect of our lives is so warped in ain’t even funny! And so, it’s perfectly normal for folks to do some of the most unreasonable and backwards stuff in the world.

It’s so wild too because sometimes a Brother might show himself to you, you know? And you to him? On some truly deep and cosmic tip … and I feel like that scares men. A lot. I don’t even think it’s about settling down even … because they end up settling down anyways (maybe to a different kind of woman … one who might even want *more* from them, ironically). But yea the ones who have broken free of the matrix, I think they too go through that "wait this AIN’T possible; cant be!" moment that we're musing on. I think they are just as unable to process the idea that someone can love them completely and wholly like that ... it’s deep.

Which begs an investigation of why it is that we are so distanced from the most natural things in the world that we end up questioning things we shouldn't and accepting things (blindly) that we should question vehemently. You know?

It’s a by-product of the world we live in ... knowing THAT it’s almost like it comes with the territory you know?

KammyD: ///"I think they are just as unable to process the idea that someone can love them completely and wholly like that...it’s deep."////

I need to hear the men's take on this. What's their stance on this? This is a question I must ask ...

Because it's like knowing that they are questioning it as well helps me to understand them ... knowing that they fear sometimes, just like me, helps me relate... but I also feel like I’ve experienced/ am experiencing a scenario where the man is accepting of this notion of complete, holistic love.

I feel like I need to get detailed here in order to give my perspective: My soul brother and I expressed that the greatest gift we’ve given eachother is/was unconditional love -- our whole selves, essentially -- and that we broadened eachother’s definitions of love in a way that it wasn't before. And he constantly reminds me -- through an alignment of intent and action -- of the TYPE of love he has for me. So as I navigate the love and relationship landscape, I feel like I have an anchor -- I know that no matter what, no matter how it manifests with these ninjas out here -- he loves me. I have in my possession the highest kind of love. The question once came up early on -- how do we explain eachother's existence to our mates? Current, future etc. I had to do it a while back when asked if I had a source of unconditional love outside of family ... and I was like "Yessir I do!" But I fully believe that I have served the same function for Him; I believe that he is able to love freely in his respective partnerings and be vulnerable simply because I exist and we have arranged ourselves in such a way to not block the free flow of love. And we hold each other down.

And granted, our respective 'relationships' are imperfect loves -- we both probably still experience relative dischord in them -- so it's not like our arrangement is the antidote to failure in matters of the heart. But it helps move it along. It provides a measuring stick. It helps me to be more expressive and vulnerable. It helps me to take more risks. It helps me to truly love. So it's like I almost want my potential mates to have someone in their lives like "me" or like a "Him" so that they will be anchored and free to LOVE without fear. It's almost like I want to see proof that you're able to cultivate a solid relationship that is timeless and limitless simultaneously, so that it doesn't scare you when you encounter it in a different manifestation. AND if they don't have such a person in their lives are you willing to BECOME that person in their lives and gift to them unconditional love … knowing that you may not get the superficialities often associated with modern romantic love -- but you'll have a love that lasts forever and they will be able to love others freely and without fear.

This question that you ask right here?:

///"Which BEGS an investigation of WHY it is that we are so distanced from the most natural things in the world that we end up questioning things we shouldn't and accepting things (blindly) that we should question vehemently. You know?"///

Is key. When Saul Williams says "The truth would have more questions..." it haunts me. I feel like I'm going to go crazy trying to decipher this in our lifetime. I'm feeling more and more that those early questions that we ask in the early stages of "collecting data/dating"... are essential and the answers are predictors of things. I'm feeling that there should be time spent molding these questions collectively and intentionally and “intergenderally.” During that process we'll inevitably be preparing our own answers, and molding our own expectations and reactions for the answers that could possibly come our way.

With Babylon being so out of order, by definition, I feel like being organized and deliberate about things like this is the only way we gonna make it out in tact ...

ElectricLady: ////"I want to see proof that you're able to cultivate a solid relationship that is timeless and limitless simultaneously."///

I am SO with you. And I think that the ONLY thing that could stand in the way of such a momentous combustion of cosmic unity completely (the realization in flesh and bone what destiny has manifested and the mind/heart have confessed) is in fact some semblance of fear, to some degree.

Fear is blinding and it is the antithesis of Freedom. I know this now more than ever.

As the quote [above] states, for us to love one another in the midst and heart of this Bablyon core of antihumanity, why, that is the most extraordinary, holy, righteous and revolutionary thing we can DO! Indeed. Love is an example of a truly liberated spirit ... to be able to love unconditionally ... to love one another without condition or boundary. I can imagine that our boundlessness would find itself in supporting and walking beside a Brother as he navigates the world and decides his road (and makes it by walking). And why wouldn't a Brother accept that kind of support? What is it in him that tries to walk the road alone (#greenday) as opposed to clasping the hand that is extended to him?

Fear. Not of commitment (as we are taught to see men). I do believe it is fear of the infinite possibilities of love (and its boundlessness), fear of vulnerability (to be loved means they have to get open, and to get open means they have let their shield down for you to come over to his side and behind his shield BUT that also leaves room for arrows to find their way and harm him in the process ... he has got to be strategic. He also must find a way to let you in without letting in the flies too...#screendoorideology).

And then in the meantime ... duty calls us. And we must continue pressing forward, loving each other and creating an awesome foundation. Yet, the question becomes ... have we maximized the infinite possibilities in this moment? In other words, could there be an exponentially more boundless and loving endeavor that can be embarked upon in THIS time and space that increases the love flow? What would THAT look like? Bliss, perhaps? How do we increase the value of every moment in love? We learn to do it with yoga, good music, better eating habits, etc. But we don't change when it comes to love, we stand behind walls and we never let it in fully and completely the way it could be! For real ...

Bliss. I believe it can be. On earth as it is in heaven.

This is what I want: Cosmic unity. I realize that so many folks are so intertwined with Babylon (whether they know it or not) that they end up living half-fulfilling lives: eating crappy food, working crappy jobs, having crappy love lives, etc.

And yet, we know that there is an alternative. And we work toward that. But then sometimes we interrupt our own pace and flow. So its like we are spiraling into outerspace (weightless) and then all of a sudden we start holding on to things because the free fall feeling is SCARY and we become afraid. Its almost too free. But WHY? Why is that scary?

In other words, why do we search the world for things that are right in front of us. And yet, we are taught to go searching all over trying to see if things exist in places where they could never be because that just isn’t what it is. And it is what it is, the universe already decided that a long time ago. (sheeesh...I say this and wait, I START TO FEEL THE FEAR IN MY OWN LIFE...uh oh! lol). But it’s cool though because destiny provides us this journey. So even when we might be going in circles literally, it is all for a powerful reason. I read that some planets take 200+ earth days to make one complete turn (from day to night) but then their actual year (full circle around a moon, for example) is like 20 days. So, time in the universe varies and there isn't necessarily a rush. But there is the need to maximize the exceptiona-lality of each movement/moment.

lastly...

I used to wonder, how could Harriet leave her man, her husband and embark on that road to freedom … that bumpy ass, sometimes lonely (many times, most times), that gun-toting, just you and the stars and the woods kinda journey you know? HOW...I actually COULDN'T even imagine it... But now I KNOW. Like, I know I know.

I spent a lot of time trying to walk around in circles but never truly making that journey towards my destination ... mainly because I was fearful of the loneliness, the long walks, many times having to rely on my own wherewithal (whatever that may be). It looked like I was revolving but I progressed nowhere (I would see day and night repeatedly, but never progressing the whole 360+ around you know?).

And a LOT of this had to do with my inability to understand my patron saint, Harriet Araminta. But now I know what that is, you just HAVE to. The new formula for me is going in the direction of freedom + being highly focused and present in the acquisition of freedom + the necessity for the freedom-creating environment to be supreme peace and love + the inability to turn back + the knowledge and confidence in what I cannot see + the ability to commit to a vision that most people around me never will commit to or see or value + doing all this without always having that "kissy-face" comfort that would make it exponentially easier = Harriet Araminta-type ish. You get to a place where you can't wait or convince or beg or hope because you have to move on. And you cannot turn back.

Wu-Tang on RZA as a leader, Nas as a comrade, diplomacy, unity & family

2011-12-23T10:01:00.000-05:00

Wu-Tang sits down at Red Bull Music Academy's Five Out of Five concert and lecture series to share the history and decode the mythology.

Malesha Jessie, Soprano / "A part of community and not just in my own bubble of my art form"

2011-12-22T10:01:00.000-05:00

Malesha's a soprano opera singing based in Brooklyn. Here she shares her unorthodox approach to her art and a bit about her philosophy on community.

Have a little faith ... "Excellence is just the bare minimum" / RZA and Kanye West on focus and discipline

2011-12-20T10:01:00.000-05:00

Reminiscent of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hour theory, master RZA speaks on young master Kanye's worth ethic in a preview from his forthcoming Red Bull Music Academy lecture, and Kanye gets introspective while on tour with Jay-Z promoting Watch The Throne.

"I'ma tell you something this young man does. They get up every morning to eat breakfast together, his whole crew. They talk about yesterday and the next day and the present. They plan, all over breakfast. They sit there and they talk about what they gonna do, what they did and how to make the music better. Then, they go exercise together. They go to the YMCA. They play basketball, lift weights. Focus, get the energy out ... He would do some charity work ... Therefore, he's doing the good deed of the day as well, good karma. Then, he goes to the studio. He stays there from 4pm and when I was there, we left at 4. So, 12 hours of in-studio work. Then he'd go to bed and do it again the next day ... The way everything happened was like focused energy, yo. Actually, I've never seen that from a rapper before. I come from Wu-Tang Clan. Y'all know us. 5 of us show up for the concert, the other 3 late, some ain't doin' it, some are sleeping. It's not only his talent that took him to the top. I've gotta say, it's his focus, y'all."
-RZA on Kanye West

"We have to rethink, reinspire. Wash the brain, don't brainwash. And allow people to think for themselves ... but present people with amazing options, to the best of what you know the truth to be. I feel like people can find themselves sooner. You know, people be like, "I don't know what I want to be." Well you know what you want to be, but you don't want to say out loud what you want to be cause you don't think it's cool enough ... It's crazy and it's delusional until it comes into fruition. You always gotta see the end goal and everything else and just fill in the blanks."
-Kanye West

"One thing Wu-Tang had back in those days was admiration of eachother ... All of us probably ... make our music privately by ourselves. I think that hurts music. Music is actually better when it's shared amongst groups."
-RZA

"Nas is one of the best emcees to ever touch the ~~light~~ mic."
-RZA on Kanye and Nas

A documentary that runs the LA Rebellion film movement down with style / Spirits of Rebellion [trailer]

2011-12-14T10:01:00.000-05:00

"I'm wishfully imagining there's a documentary somewhere called 'The LA Rebellion' that runs all of this down with style."
-Achali

We asked for it.

Director Zeinabu irene Davis' Creative Statement: "Spirits of Rebellion documents the lives and work of a small group of critically acclaimed, but as of yet relatively unknown group of black filmmakers and media artists known as the Los Angeles Rebellion, the first sustained movement in the United States by a collective of minority filmmakers that aimed to reimagine the production process so as to represent, reflect on, and enrich the day to day lives of people in their own communities.

All of the filmmakers associated with this movement attended UCLA between the “Watts riots” of 1965 and the “urban uprising” in Los Angeles that followed the Rodney King verdict in 1992, but black film students at UCLA and beyond continue to look to this group of filmmakers for inspiration, filmmaking advice, and practical guidance. Independent filmmakers, grassroots media makers, and various media artists in the US have found the example of the LA Rebellion School of Filmmakers to be an inspiring example of commitment to the medium of film as a tool for imaginative art and transformative storytelling.

Following from the Ethnocommunications Program at UCLA (1968-1972), an experimental affirmative action initiative which created a space for ethnically Latino, Asian, Native American, and African students to collaborate on the production of films, student filmmakers of color remade the university and production process in ways that addressed their shared, though rarely discussed, sense of how to work together and why it was important to make films.

Headlined by Julie Dash, Charles Burnett, Haile Gerima, Billy Woodberry, Barbara McCullough, Ben Caldwell, and Larry Clark, the LA Rebellion filmmakers collectively imagined and created a black cinema against the conventions of Hollywood and Blaxploitation films by attending to the quiet moments of everyday life in their communities, and paying homage to the dignity of their characters.

Spirits of Rebellion will address a series of questions about what we might learn from the LA Rebellion today. As is often the case, the moniker LA Rebellion was one conceived not by the filmmakers themselves, but by critics trying to name a group of films, in retrospect, that shared a common spirit. Nonetheless, the sense of community fostered by overlapping hopes for social and political change, and the collaborative work process that the filmmakers developed continues to connect them to one another, while informing the lives of those who chose not to pursue a career in film production.

Through intimate interviews with the filmmakers, archival research, and discussions with younger black artists, Spirits of Rebellion inquires into the future of a media-based social movement that started in the 1960s. How do the filmmakers assess the successes and failures of their efforts to create alternative cinematic forms for political ends? In what ways do they see their films expressing these aims? Where and how does the spirit of this movement manifest itself today, and what kinds of work practices innovated through the LA Rebellion might inform the principles of marginalized cinema collectives of the future? What are the long-term impacts of the public programs that enabled these filmmakers to access the resources to make films as students, and how should these insights inform future policies for funding the production of art and culture?

Against the backdrop of cuts to social services and public education globally, transformations in the process of producing and distributing media, and growing wealth gaps in cities throughout the globe, it is an unusually poignant and urgent moment to reflect on the legacy of the LA Rebellion." (source)

#Occupy / A breakdown of sorts

2011-11-21T10:01:00.001-05:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

{image: DJ Jahmedicine w/ Talib Kweli}

Well, hello there! And welcome to "Real Nigga Quotes: The Occupy Wall Street Edition". Today, we're here with Medical Music Maestro DJ Jahmedicine from Brooklyn, New York City. Here's what he had to say after djing at the November 17 Day of Action:

"I was real skeptical, judgmental and critical of what the agenda was and all this other mental stuff. But being in the energy around thousands upon thousands of people that wanna potentially change this situation, I saw that the power was more in that type of spirit becoming contagious and spreading to the masses of people that are struggling the same way. You may not have to march but what are you doing that contributes to the transformation of our overall situation? People would rather have a 3-hour conversation tearing something down, talking 'bout Beyonce, their favorite TV show, rather than trying to figure out what we're going to do to survive collectively and build our future. So, the new social style needs to be about: people coming together, people partying in the streets, and people devising a plan for the future. Nah mean. Holla at me."

And there you have it folks. Reporting live, from planet earth, this has been "Real Nigga Quotes".

Interview with creator of Occupy Wall Street "bat-signal" projections during Brooklyn Bridge #N17 march [excerpts]
(SOURCE: Boing Boing)

[...]

"Opposite the Verizon building, there is a bunch of city housing. Subsidized, rent-controlled. There's a lack of services, lights are out in the hallways, the housing feels like jails, like prisons. I walked around, and put up signs in there offering money to rent out an apartment for a few hours. I didn't say much more. I received surprisingly few calls, and most of them seemed not quite fully "there." But then I got a call from a person who sounded pretty sane. Her name was Denise Vega. She lived on the 16th floor. Single, working mom, mother of three.

"I spoke with her on the phone, and a few days later went over and met her.

"I told her what I wanted to do, and she was enthused. The more I described, the more excited she got.

"Her parting words were, "let's do this."

"She wouldn't take my money. That was the day of the eviction of Zuccotti, the same day. And she'd been listening to the news all day, she saw everything that had happened.

""I can't charge you money, this is for the people," she said.

"She was born in the projects. She opened up her home to us.

"She was in there tonight with her 3 daughters, 2 sisters. The NYPD started snooping around down on the ground while the projections were up, it was clear where we were projecting from, and inside it was festive.

""If they want to come up they're gonna need a warrant!," her family was saying. "If they ask us, well, we don't know what they are talking about!" They were really brave and cool.

[...]

"A lot of it is just chants that we've heard.

[...]

""It's the beginning of the beginning." I loved that one. So frequently, things happen in the world that make it feel like we're at the beginning of the end. But—"the beginning of the beginning," what a radically optimistic statement that is.

"The scale of the environmental and economic crisis we are facing, it's extraordinary. This movement is a response to that crisis. Our leaders aren't responding to any of that in a way that is commensurate to the crises we face. And that one sign has always spoken to me. We have to throw off our despair about the future world we might be facing, because if we come together as people and humanity, we can change it. And what Occupy Wall Street makes me feel is that for the first time in a long time that might be possible.

"That means a lot to me. This is choosing hope over despair. This is actively and resolutely making that choice. It's not going to be easy. It's not going to be over in two months. It's not going to be just the result of conversation.

"I'm 45. The people who worked on this are a diverse range of ages. Some are in their 20s, but not all of us are that young. It's hard to study what's happening in the environment and with the global economy and not feel afraid. There is a lot to fear. One of the things we were projecting tonight, it was Max Nova's idea. "Do not be afraid." And I think that's so important.

"I watched 9/11 happen from my rooftop in Park Slope. I was there. It's been a crazy decade since then, a fearful time. And our leaders have stoked those fears, there's been a lot of fear-mongering. It's been like that for a decade, and it feels like we are turning a page. I know we're heading into winter in New York, but this feels like springtime.

[...]

"I feel immense gratitude to these youngsters for kicking my ass into gear. I'm feeling so much gratitude to everyone, for putting their bodies on the line every day, for this movement. It's a global uprising we're part of. We have to win." (source)

To be an African Teacher

2011-11-16T10:01:00.000-05:00

To Be an African Teacher
by Asa G. Hilliard III in KMT, 1998

Ptahhotep instructs the ignorant in the knowledge and in the standards of good speech.

"A man teaches as he acts ... The wise person feeds the soul with what endures, so that it is happy with that person on earth. The wise is known by his good actions. The heart of the wise matches his or her tongue and his or her lips are straight when he or she speaks. The wise have eyes that are made to see and ears that are made to hear what will profit the offspring. The wise is a person who acts with MAAT [truth, justice, order, balance, harmony, righteousness and reciprocity] and is free of falsehood and disorder."
-Ptahotep, 2350 BCE / from, The Teachings of Ptahhotep (An African book and the oldest complete book in the world, written sometime between 3800 and 2350 BCE, 4750 years ago in KMT [pre-Islamic Black Egypt]).

Many of us do not know it, but African people have thousands of years of well-recorded deep thought and educational excellence. Teaching and the shaping of character is one of our great strengths.

In our world-view, our children are seen as divine gifts of our creator. Our children, their families, and the social and physical environment must be nurtured together. They must be nurtured in a way that is appropriate for a spiritual people, whose aim is to “build for eternity.”

What a pity that our communities have forgotten our “Jeles” and our “Jegnas,” our great master teachers. What a pity that we cannot readily recall the names of our greatest wise men and women. What a pity that we have come to be dependent on the conceptions and the leadership of others, some of whom not only do not have our interests at heart, they may even be our enemies. Some actually seek to control us for their own benefit through the process of mis-education.

Henry Berry of the Virginia House of Congress (during the antebellum period) said this about African people:

We have closed every avenue through which light may enter their minds. If we could only extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work would be complete.

So we have two primary reasons for knowing our heritage in education and child raising, or socialization.

» We have the best teaching and socialization practices ever developed anywhere in the world. These practices are still good for others and for us now.

» The primary tool of our oppression is mis-education by our oppressors. We must regain control over the primary education and socialization of our children.

Everywhere on the African continent, from the time of the Pharoahs in Ancient KMT (Egypt) to the modern era, great African civilizations in many river valleys, from the Nile to the Niger and to the Cape, were the center of the most sophisticated education and socialization systems ever developed on the Earth. Some of these civilizations developed in Africa long before other civilizations developed anywhere else in the world. The vestiges of these brilliant African creations can still be found in Africa and throughout the African Diaspora (see Finch, 1998).

We must consider our ancient traditions; traditions that made us respected teachers all over the globe. Our people must hold their heads high in all matters that pertain to teaching and learning.

African traditional teachers were and are people of high character, who have deep respect for ancestors and for community tradition. African teachers accept the calling and the obligation to facilitate inter-generational cultural transmission. African teachers also strive for the highest standards of achievement in emerging science and technology, areas that have always owed much to African scholarship.

Our genius is a part of the foundation of the revolution in knowledge in physics, mathematics, engineering and cyber-technology. Our genius is present at the deepest levels of the arts and humanities. All of this is in spite of overwhelming resistance to our learning by determined oppressors.

Therefore, for many African Teachers, tapping the genius and touching the spirit of African children is not a mystery. Not only can our children learn, they bring awesome intellects to the task. It is a routine manifestation of the African teacher’s excellence to nurture this genius. Along with teaching content, teaching good character and social bonds are our historical and contemporary strengths.

African teachers, worldwide, share in a cultural deep structure, based upon an African “world-view,” a shared way of looking at the world and the human experience. This world-view channels the focus of African teachers, providing them with appropriate patterns for thought and practice.

While it certainly is a practical necessity to get academic degrees and certification from non-African institutions, such teacher training and legitimation is really minimal preparation for African teachers. We go far beyond these things to reach our traditional higher standards, whether we work in public or in independent settings, whether we teach our own children or also teach the children of others.

For the African teacher, teaching is far more than a job or simply a way to make a living. Students are not “clients” or “customers.” Our students and parents are our family. No sacrifice is too great for that family, for its growth and enhancement.

What is special about an African teacher? It is the world-view and the practice that comes from our world-view, even when it is a dim memory.

A teacher of African ancestry who does not go beyond certification and degrees to know or to embrace an African world-view is not an African! Cultural excellence is the essence of an African teacher. In all of our learning, we must acquire an understanding of ourselves and our heritage. This does not mean that we cannot learn from others. However, we must be critical learners, rejecting anything that is anti-African.

African teaching functions must be embedded in and must serve an African community. Traditionally, African communities have been identified by a shared belief in several key elements. It is these elements that are the foundation for African teachers.

» The belief that the cosmos is alive.

» The belief that spirituality is at the center of our being.

» The belief that human society is a living spiritual part of the cosmos, not alien to it.

» The belief that our people have a divine purpose and destiny.

» The belief that each child is a “Living Sun,” a Divine gift of the Creator.

» The belief that, properly socialized, our children will experience stages of transformation, moving toward perfection, that is to be more like the creator (“mi Re” or like Ra, in the KMT language, meaning to try to live like God).

» Since the deep guiding principle of “living like God” is to follow MAAT (Truth, Justice, Righteousness, Order, Reciprocity, Harmony, Balance), then African teachers focus the curriculum on the real and the true, on what was, what is, and on what can be, in keeping with divine principles.

» African teachers place a premium on bringing their students into a knowledge of themselves and a knowledge of their communities. African people place great value on WHO each person is, on WHO the community is and the honored place that each member of the family occupies within the community.

» African teachers respect mastery, and seek through apprenticeship to learn from true masters, masters who are valued agents of the African community, who are steeped in the deep thought and behavior of the community, who exhibit an abiding unshakable primary loyalty to the community and who are in constant communication with the wise elders of the community.

» African teachers recognize the genius and the divinity of each of our children, speaking to and teaching to each child’s intellect, humanity, and spirit. We do not question a child’s possession of these things. In touching the intellect, humanity and spirit within children, African teachers recognize the centrality of relationships between teachers and students, among students, and within the African community as a whole.

» For the African teacher, teaching is a calling, a constant journey towards mastery, a scientific activity, a matter of community membership, an aspect of a learning community, a process of “becoming a library,” a matter of care and custody for our culture and traditions, a matter of a critical viewing of the wider world, and a response to the imperative of MAAT.

» The African teacher is a parent, friend, guide, coach, healer, counselor, model, storyteller, entertainer, artist, architect, builder, minister, and advocate to and for students.

A brief sample of African socialization can be found in the work of K. Kia Kimbwandende Bunseki Fu-Kiau and A. M. Lukondo-Wamba, master teachers and authors of Kindezi: The Congo Art of Babysitting (1988):

The Kindezi can only be perceived and understood through the social context of the community it serves as an art and a big social responsibility. It is through the role that Kindizi plays in the community that one can appreciate its importance in the dingo-dingo (process) of shaping African social patterns. The quality and personality of the ndezi/babysitter, make by influence the quality and personality of the child in the sadulu (school place) and the community as well. Since it is the ndezi with whom the child stays all day long, the future of the child will greatly reflect the impact of Kindezi, the art of babysitting, not only upon the child but upon the society itself.

The contribution of Kindezi in Bantu societies in general, and the Kongo in particular, cannot be under-estimated or denied. The role it plays in all aspects of community life is so great that it merits erection of a monument. (p. 20)

Though things are rapidly changing today in Africa, the Kindezi, in its substructure, still remains as a skill and are to be learned by all young community members, girls as well as boys, through an initiatic and practical process for, as a Kongo proverb would say, Kindezi M’fuma mu kanda (The art of babysitting is a baobab to the community), i.e., a string supporter of community economic activities . . . Babysitting, sala sindezi, is not instinctively acquired as some would assume or pretend. Dingo-dingo diena it is a process by which one discovers the mystery of human growth and reaches the total understanding of the psychology of the child.

By babysitting, one learns the wonderful skill of being responsible for another life and how to become a new “living pattern.” A “living pattern” is a model through which cultural values are transmitted from generation to generation. Through Kindezi, Africans acquire this skill, a skill that has made the African not only one of the most religious human beings on earth but, also, one of the most humanistic.

African parents, mothers in particular, have a great concern about their children’s childhood because they are aware that Kimbuta kia muntu, bonso kimuntu, ga mataba–“One’s leadership, like one’s personality, finds its roots in the child-hood.” Earlier events in the childhood life play an important role in adulthood. As such, great attention is paid to whoever has a role to play in the life of a child—the human being with the quickest copying mind. This basic understanding that childhood is the foundation that determines the quality of a society is the main reason that prompted African communities to make Kindezi and art, or kinkete, to be learned by all their members. Thus Kindezi is required in societies that want to prepare their members to become not only good fathers and mothers, but above all, people who care about life and who understand, both humanely and spiritually, the highly unshakable value of the human being that we all are. (4–5)

Typically the African teacher leads a social collective process, one where social bonds are reinforced or created. In this social process, the destinies of the students are connected to each other, to their families, to their communities, to their ancestors, to those who are yet to be born, to their environment, to their traditions, to MAAT as a way of life, and to their creator.

From these few thoughts, one can see that the popular use of the African proverb, “It takes a whole village to raise a child,” is interpreted in a very trivial way, and is taken out of context. Africans who use the proverb understand it. It is a part of their world-view, their value system, a world-view and value system that may not be shared by those who quote Africans out of context. As Fu-Kiau and Lukondo-Wamba show above, the proverb is really about raising a village, not merely raising a child. It is not a matter of welfare as it is understood in the West. It really takes a whole village to raise itself, a village that values every member as a “living sun,” a village to which the child belongs, a village where every child is shown that he or she “will never be given away.” Clearly, this is a different order of “child care.” This is African teaching/socialization, and the incorporation of the child into the community.

Africans never take teaching lightly. It is a sacred calling. The long night of slavery, colonization, apartheid, and White supremacy ideology ruptured the traditional bond between African teachers and their nurture, and even their memories of that nurture. We have been reduced in our expertise, lowered in our expectations, and limited in our goals. We have even been dehumanized and de-spiritualized. We must return to the upward ways of our ancestors. We have forgotten our aims, methods and content.

We must not bring shame on ourselves and upon our descendants. We must bring light to the world again.

Selected References and Bibliography

Ainsworth, Mary (1967). Infancy in Uganda Infant Care and the Growth of Love. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

Anderson, J. D. (1988). The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Callaway, H. (1975). “Indigenous Education in Yoruba Society” in Conflict and Harmony in Education in Tropical Africa (Studies on Modern Asia and Africa: No. 10), G. N. Brown and M. Hiskett (Eds.). Rutherford, N. J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

Carruthers, J. (1995). MDW NTR Divine Speech: A Historiographical Reflection of African Deep Thought from the time of the Pharaohs to the Present. London: Karnak House.

Erny, Pierre. (1973). Childhood and Cosmos: the Social Psychology of the Black African Child. New York: New Perspectives.

Erny, Pierre (1981). The Child and His Environment in Black Africa: An Essay on Traditional Education. New York: Oxford University Press.

Finch, Charles. (1998). Star of Deep Beginnings: The Genesis of African Science and Technology. Decatur, Ga.: Khenti Inc.

Fu-Kiau, K. Kia Bunseki and Lukondo-Wamba. (1988). Kindezi: The Congo Art of Babysitting. New York: Vantage Press.

Geber, M. (1958). “The Psychomotor Development of African Children in the First Year And The Influence Of Maternal Behavior.” Journal of Social Psychology, 47, 185-195.

Hilliard, Asa G. III. (1998). SBA: The Reawakening of The African Mind. Gainesville, Florida: Makare Publishers.

---. (1995). The Teachings of Ptahhotep. Atlanta, Ga.: Blackwood Press.

Pearce, Joseph Chilton. (1977). Magical Child: Rediscovering Nature’s Plan. New York: E. P. Dutton.

Webber, T. L. (1978). Deep Like the Rivers: Education in the Slave Quarter Community, 1831-1865. New York: W. W. Norton.

Wilson, Amos (1991). Awakening the Natural Genius of Black Children. New York:Afrikan World Infosystems.

Woodson, C. G. (1968). Miseducation of the Negro. Washington, D. C.: Associated Publishers (first published in 1933).

(source one | two)

"How to form the village?" / Analyzing Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting

2011-11-15T10:01:00.000-05:00

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Thoughts on Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting
by Mamab (Guest Contributor, The Liberator Magazine)

I read K. Kia Bunseki Fu-Kiau and A.M. Lukondo-Wamba's Kindezi: The Kongo Art of Babysitting, a scant 41-page treatise on child rearing or, as the authors proclaim, "how to teach your children and yourself TO BE AFRIKAN" with the expectation that it would affirm the propriety of mothers staying with their young babies and children. I expected that babysitters (ndezi) would play a secondary role in child rearing. I further expected that from a holistic perspective, and recognizing how all-consuming motherhood can be, babysitters would play a primary role in supporting or nurturing women as they set about this most important journey of mothering. In my mind, I craved a bona fide source to reconcile scattered anecdotes from African peoples I have met in my life and my own romanticized notions of how things are done in the putatively most family-centered continent and humanity's native land, Africa.

Often in the United States, people repeat the storied African proverb, "it takes a village to raise a child." Still, how to form such a village in a modern American society where work-life balance is illusive; maternity leave is unpaid and not guaranteed; and non-familial daycare is the status quo is a complicated matter. This book would be my inspiration, or so I thought.

It did not take long for me to become disappointed as the authors touted Kongo babysitters as the laudable precursor to the ostensibly laudable -- even if late -- Western women's liberation movement,

"Without Kindezi [the art of babysitting], the African woman would never experience the great amount of freedom she enjoys. Nor would she occupy the position she occupies in matters of land control and economic productivity. Contrary to the Western woman, an African woman is more a farmer than her fellow man. The African woman, in this perspective, is way more self-entrepreneurial ... The African woman stays on her farm from morning to the fall of night. (p.20)

"[...] For centuries, African women were 'kings', generals, farmers, boatwomen, fisherwomen, doctors, traders, and miners (in pottery fields) thanks to earlier discovery of the Kindezi that allowed them to be free human beings." (p.21)

Under this theory, freedom equals productivity and productivity equals work which is contrasted with child rearing. Women need to work the farms to sustain the community. In fact, women need babysitters "in times of land cultivation so that no one could pretend to be unable to work for lack of a babysitter." (p.22) Not to mention, in the Kongo, children are not welcome at weddings or during grocery shopping or visits with family out of town. (Ibid.) Thus childcare (child rearing) ought to be provided generally by elders who can no longer be [physically] productive and young children, albeit to a lesser extent, who are not yet able to be [physically] productive. In this way, babysitting is both a rite of passage for youth who learn empathy, compassion and patience and a tool by which elders are kept useful and lively. (Pp. 8 - 9) Children who have babysitters, moreover, are better for receiving their basic life lessons and values from seasoned, wise people rather than their own parents. Babysitters are after all the main shapers of personality and teachers, especially of political consciousness. (Pp.20, 36).

Lest I be unfair, I must acknowledge that children under age two are carried as necessary by their babysitters near to their mothers' work for breastfeeding. (p.18) As well, I did feel some appeal to the argument that elders are the best suited to transmit values given their more vast life experience and training. As I considered Kindezi though, I wondered how this so-called Kongo Art is distinguishable then from customs in the United States, which correlate to, I think, counterintuitive (perhaps perverse) attitudes about women. I understand that the care and quality inherent in the "babysitting" by elders and others in the Kongo, with its multi-tiered structure, may be superior to typical daycare in the U.S. (The query of whether and how informal schooling past preschool age in the Kongo compares with post-preschool formal schooling stateside, I set aside.) What I find difficult to accept, however, is that the highest possibility for women the world over and our calling is to be freed from the children that we bear for nine (actually ten) months, who learn in the womb to know our voice and smell, and for whom our breasts are filled with milk -- the perfect food -- for their development during the critical early years. It has seemed to me that God or nature, if you will, created women to be with child. Yet even on the Continent, per these authors, cultural ideology has determined that is an inferior position to occupy. I wrote this article, at various points one-handed, while nursing, cradling and soothing back to sleep my 8-month-old daughter, my first born child. And I've still one question: When did it become a greater burden to women to be with their children than to be without them?

On the reasons why niggas no longer dance / "Black bodies grinding"

2011-10-31T12:01:00.000-04:00

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We walk into the party and buy a drink or find a good post to survey the crowd. When we observe the dance floor we see a multitude of black bodies grinding against one another. Their movements mimic the sexual act and nothing more. Dancing in and of itself is a sensual act. It calls on the performer to abandon logic for a moment and "feel" the music. Today, the male is merely required to follow the gyrations of his female partner. Why is it that most of us no longer dance in the more complicated fashion of our parents and grandparents?

The old dances -- from the Charleston to the Funky Chicken -- have all fallen by the wayside. What remains is a kind of upright humping. There are of course a few novelty dances -- the Shoulder Lean, the Stanky Leg, etc., but the party has not reached fever pitch until the music beckons the male to stuff his genitals into his dance partners' crack.

This is the result of our music no longer speaking to real life situations; to put things plainly, our music rarely has soul anymore. When we hear a James Brown song, we know that his lyrics and music require more than mere grinding. It requires the dancer to showcase his or her personality. "The Big Payback" for instance is a song that persuades the listener to empathize with feelings of revenge. How does your body express "revenge" in a jovial manner? Not by simply grinding. There are too many nuances in the song for grinding alone to capture its mood. Yet when we hear contemporary music, we are satisfied with merely humping.

The artist is at fault here. Create music that is multi-layered and profound and the dancers will respond with much more enthusiasm and not herd-mentality grinding.

Friendship and community in Morrison's Sula / "A black woman's epic"

2011-10-28T12:01:00.000-04:00

“Oh, they’ll love me all right. It will take time, but they’ll love me.... After all the old women have lain with the teenagers; when all the young girls have slept with their old drunken uncles; after all the black men fuck all the white ones; when all the white women kiss all the black ones; when the guards have raped all the jailbirds and after all the whores make love to their grannies; after all the faggots get their mothers’ trim; when Lindbergh sleeps with Bessie Smith and Norma Shearer makes it with Stepin Fetchit; after all the dogs have fucked all the cats and every weather vane on every barn flies off the roof to mount the hogs . . . then there’ll be a little love left over for me.”
-Sula Peace

I spent a recent weekend dissecting the symbiotic relationship between love -- of oneself and of another -- and friendship, wondering if, how, and where these concepts are conjoined. My musings were triggered by the fact that I was in the company of my best(est) friend in the whole wide world, and had much opportunity to both sink fully into the extended moment, and step outside its margins to reflect on the meandering journey that we’ve traveled together over the last eight years. I pondered the myriad of ways in which we have borne witness to miracles and tragedies in our individual lives. I basked in the joy of knowing that we have survived these blessings and calamities in no small part because of who we’ve been to, for, and with each other in those experiences that have passed, and who we pinky-promise to be to, for, and with each other in those experiences that are imminent.

There’s the rote and slightly hyberbolic (her version, not mine) story that we tell about the embryonic phase of our friendship -- the CliffsNotes’ version is that when we first met, which happened to be on a particularly sweltering summer day, she had an immediate distaste for me because I was such and such, and I couldn’t bear to be in her presence because she was this and that.

Then there’s the far more enduring and layered story -- the one that we don’t speak.

We know this second story as well and as deeply as we know each other and ourselves. In many ways, we’re still writing it. And we’re housing, nurturing, and guarding it in that narrow space between where she ends and I begin.

Thoughts on friendship, coupled with thoughts on this recent piece on the fracturing of the black community, led me to dust off my beloved copy of Toni Morrison’s 1973 novel, Sula. Morrison captures so aptly the inherent complexity of a friendship that exists despite the seemingly oppositional identities of the parties involved -- identities that differ and shift within the constraints of time and its unforgiving nature -- and against the backdrop of an evolving community struggling to redefine itself and its values. Below is an excerpt of a critique of Sula written by Karen F. Stein during her tenure as Associate Professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. (The full analysis is available on JSTOR.)

Read on. Then call a friend.

Toni Morrison’s Sula: A Black Woman’s Epic
by Karen F. Stein

The central figures in the novel, Nel Wright and Sula Peace, are diametric opposites whose lives are linked by bonds too powerful for either to resist. Ultimately hero and villain change roles, as their relationship grows into a larger selfhood. Using heroic conventions as a structural basis for her novel, Morrison creates layers of irony and multiple perceptions that add depth to her analysis of contemporary black women. Although the characters’ lives in an impoverished rural community, tellingly named “the Bottom,” contrast markedly with the epic figures whose names they bear (i.e., Ajax, Helen, Eve, and Judas), Morrison’s characters are measured by the heroic yardstick.

Set in a small Ohio town during the years 1919 to 1965, Sula chronicles the fortunes of the women in two matriarchal households within the black community, particularly Nel Wright and Sula Peace, whose lives represent the range of choices possible for black women in modern America. As we watch them grow to maturity, the heroes learn about sexuality, evil, power, love, and, primarily, about the prospects and limits of their lives, the difficulties of survival in an inimical world. Sula and Nel represent opposite approaches to the epic tasks of self-discovery and integration into society. Whereas the questing hero is traditionally an embodiment of a culture’s noblest values, the rigid Nel is too bound by convention to undertake a journey, and the adventurous Sula appears to be the antithesis of her society’s codes.

At the book’s heart is the tale of the friendship between Nel Wright and Sula Peace. Beginning when they are adolescent girls and continuing as they mature, the friendship changes in nature but remains the deepest attachment and most profound influence on both of their lives. Although the two girls share dreams of adventure and unfolding selfhood, their approaches to the task of maturation are diametrically opposed. Nel casts her visions in traditional romantic fantasies and sacrifices her independence to conventionality, while Sula, insisting on her independence, becomes isolated from society; she is free but directionless.

Obedient, quiet, and repressed, Nel first experiences herself as an individual apart from her family when she gazes in a mirror and dreams of traveling in the world beyond the Bottom [their hometown.] “But,” the narrator interjects at this point, “that was before she met Sula. . .” (p. 25). The introduction of Sula at this crucial birth of Nel’s self-awareness highlights the link between the two girls. In fact, it is her sense of her nascent identity which gives Nel the strength to defy her mother’s prohibition and establish a friendship with Sula. Yet it is to be Sula, rather than Nel, who eventually realizes Nel’s dreams of a journey and of independent selfhood.

As is frequently the case in epics, dreams play a significant role in the story. Dreams build the initial link between Sula and Nel, and foretell their different paths of self-expression. In her daydreams, Nel fantasizes “lying on a flowered bed, tangled in her own hair, waiting for some fiery prince” (p. 44) like the passive fairy-tale heroine. When Nel later marries, her life becomes one of passive limitation and stagnation, described in terms of spider web imagery suggestive of the entanglement in her own hair. Sula’s fantasies, by contrast, are actively sensuous ones in which she gallops “through her own mind on a gray-and-white horse tasting sugar and smelling roses” (p. 44). Resisting human ties, she is the daring, sensuous, active woman, seeking to experience life and her own being to the fullest. In her isolation, Sula is free, but she is directionless. Because neither of these two paths leads to personal fulfillment and social regeneration, the novel dramatizes the ironic contrast between epic expectation and actual achievement.

Nel’s marriage separates her from Sula, who alone, of all the women in the Bottom, rejects the limits, the obligations and restrictions, of marriage and motherhood. Viewing marriage as compounded of convenience and caution, Sula avoids such ties. While her repudiation of these bonds renders her an outcast in the eyes of her community, she perceives herself as free, and therefore able, as none of the other women are, to be honest and to experience life and self fully. Her journey is the enactment of that freedom.

It is consistently at the points of tangency to each other that the lives of Nel and Sula are most vitally lived. We remember that their friendship came into being in dreams before the two girls met each other. More significantly, Morrison’s imagery suggests a kinship so close as to be a physical connection. In their girlhood, “. . . their friendship was so close, they themselves had difficulty distinguishing one’s thoughts from the other’s ... a compliment to one was a compliment to the other, and cruelty to one was a challenge to the other” (p. 72). When Sula returns to the Bottom after a long absence, the ties remain strong. Nel’s home-centered life is expanded and enriched when Sula returns to the Bottom. Her reappearance is described in physical terms. To Nel, her friend’s return is “like getting the use of an eye back, having a cataract removed.... Talking to Sula had always been a conversation with herself” (p. 82). For Sula, lacking a central core, Nel is “the closest thing to both an other and a self” (p. 103); she thinks of them as “‘two throats and one eye”‘ (p. 126). The imagery of physical connection suggests a more profound bond than friendship between the two women; they are two parts of one personality or, as Morrison has stated, “If they were one woman, they would be complete.” As doubles, they complement each other and, combined, make up a complete picture of the hero.

On the disappearance of the black community / "Still fracturing today"

2011-10-25T12:01:00.000-04:00

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The Oxford Dictionary defines community as "a feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals".

It does not require much effort on behalf of the casual observer to see that America's black communities are, at best, fractured and still fracturing today. Without sifting through similar phenomena taking place amongst other cultural and ethnic groups, we see plainly and without much effort that the above definition of community is hard pressed to show itself being manifest among blacks.

Most often, black neighborhoods are defined by the pigmentation of the residents living there and nothing more. One look inside each apartment or home reveals families arranged in their own practical manner -- not according to a racially defined rule. Beyond the ever abstract wish for "more money" (which is not a uniquely black desire), none of the residents seem to share any goals that would serve to shape a unique cultural identity. From New York to California, black neighborhoods are typically mere conglomerations of black strangers, not "communities".

The reason for this state of affairs might lay in the hand-wringing idea that the American black identity, when we view it fully, has never been based on much more than a shared striving against and contempt for oppression. Today, that oppression has been placed in check or has grown more sophisticated in its approach -- whichever you like. It nevertheless stands that the old form of oppression -- which blackness relied upon -- is gone and it follows that the old black identity has left the party with it.

It used to be enough to say that blackness only required the necessary melanin and a strong belief in "the fight for more rights for niggas". How complicated things have become.

On the strange habit of dope-dealing and its anachronistic appeal

2011-10-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

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Today, practically every one of America's notorious ghettos is undergoing a major facelift. The urban landscape, once replete with condemned buildings and abandoned lots, is fast becoming a homogenized and sterile shopping mall. A process which begins in New York or Chicago goes on duplicating itself in the other American cities. Every city is becoming a mirror image of the other with its big box stores, non-smoking restaurants and bars, and bike lanes. The process of gentrification has also made the city safer -- police are more present, streets are more well lit -- yet we still find a robust attraction to crack dealing in the music of the day (hip hop). Selling crack successfully is the hallmark of the contemporary rapper's reputation. But where is all of this crack being sold?

To be sure, many cities have maintained small outposts of urban blight and crime (even if those areas are also on the gentrification cutting block as well), yet the extent of the drug trade is at low tide compared to its more visible and widespread presence in the early 90s. Most young people today, especially niggas, are not anxious to sell crack in order to get ahead. Why then is the mention of the practice so inextricable from much of today's best rap?

Those of us who survived the Crack Years know that the drug's pecuniary benefits could never hold a candle to its side effects: drive-by shootings, police raids, crackheads, &c. But more and more, the audience for hip hop is simply too young to recall those social ills. Various features of crack culture are reaching new listeners as mere tropes of anti-establishment or non mainstream success.

I cannot point to any especially negative consequences spawning from this appropriation beyond a kind of historical revisionism that makes the Crack Years seem like the Roaring Twenties for Niggas. The phenomenon can be understood in one of two ways: either the nigga has digested and come to terms with crack to the extent that he can now treat it lightly (a la Dave Chappelle skits) or he has not grasped the near genocidal nature of the drug and risks being tripped up by the next one.

"Nobody Can Predict The Moment Of Revolution" / "We The People Have Found Our Voice" [shortfilms]

2011-10-10T12:01:00.000-04:00

Unquestionably the most-asked question I've heard regarding the fledgling #occupywallstreet movement is, "what do they want?" Unquestionably the best answer I've heard from those participating in the ongoing protest comes from these short films below: "It's not a protest about being against something, it's a way to formulate something new." We can't say if this is the revolution, but it's certainly nice to see people displaying agency.

RELATED: "The Corporation" [film] / Capitalism: A Love Story [film]

Creative Statement: "We want to share insights into the formation of a new social movement as it is still taking shape in real time. The video was shot during the 5th and 6th day of the occupation. This idea to occupy the financial district in New York City was inspired by recent uprisings in Spain, Greece, Egypt, and Tunisia which most of us were following online. Despite of the corporate media's effort to silence the protests, and Yahoo's attempt to to censor it in e-mail communication, the occupation is growing in numbers and spreading to other cities in the US and abroad."

Creative Statement: "We the people have found our voice" (NYC General Assembly, September 27, 2011). "If it’s our sharing that makes us powerful, why return to normal? This life is more worth living than the one we left behind" (Leaflet, Solidarity March with Occupy Wall Street, October 5, 2011). "How do our voices of dissent encounter each other? Do we really want to merge our raging cacophony into a unified political agenda? What if the voice of the people is always in a mode of becoming? Welcome to the hidden track of Occupy Wall Street: We are discovering new ways in which our desires can resonate together. This space is our sonogram of potential."

Circa 34 does fashion with a cause / "Committed to enhancing the human condition ... creating new beginnings out of things that already exist"

2011-09-30T12:01:00.000-04:00

In the northwest DC suburb of Mount Rainer, Maryland, Phyllis Jordan and Vivian Ledbetter run an "eco-conscious consignment shop" called Circa 34. The shop, with its salvaged antique doors (re-purposed to serve as store fixtures and displays), specializes in recycled home goods, antiques, art, and vintage and modern fashions, and as stated in its mission is, "committed to enhancing the human condition and conserving the earth’s resources." More of a "salvage connection" than a thrift store, they're helping usher in a new era of environmental design. "You don’t actually need a lot of things in your environment to give you a sense of satisfaction or to express your personal style. People as individuals and society collectively are finally getting serious about over accumulation and waste and are downsizing. Recycling what is already here is a good and worthy practice. It’s so energizing when someone else can also see beyond the years of service that a particular item has given and reinvent it for another cause. We love to create a new beginning out of things that already exist."

It's not a surprise then that, when Circa found themselves brainstorming with Cross of Calvary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City and Elana Jenkins of "funk shui" aesthetic brand Funkiedo, a powerful idea found the catalyst it needed. The three partner organizations are planning to put on a fashion show benefit to support some 300 Ugandan orphans by providing them with goats and chickens -- staples in many Ugandan communities -- for sustenance. These children represent a small fraction of people in Uganda battling the AIDS epidemic. But without parents their struggle to live is profound, and the ownership of a goat or a few chickens can afford them the additional resources they need to ensure their own survival. While these animals may not hold much value in modern western culture, they can provide both nourishment and financial opportunity (goat's milk and chicken eggs can be developed into a fairly consistent stream of income). The most beautiful thing about this project is that there is a specific and tangible outcome. And every contribution brings them one step closer to their goal. Think about it: in comparison, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa services 100 young girls.

Deogratias in Dar Es Salaam

2011-09-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

Urban Quilombo / "An intricate and holistic picture that challenges outsiders' comprehension of the nature of misery and promise inside a favela"

2011-09-23T12:01:00.000-04:00

The 2002 film-slash-cult classic Cidade de Deus (City of God) provides an opening for most of us into the world of Brazilian favelas. With the ebullient Rocket as our guide, we tour what is now Rio de Janeiro’s best-known slum, and play witness to brutality perpetuated by people on both sides of the seemingly fluid law. It comes as no surprise, then, that the film is widely criticized for glorifying violence and dereliction, and presenting it as the norm in the neighborhood, which is populated by roughly 40,000 poor people -- most of whom are Afro-Brazilians or Afro-descendentes.

During my visit to Cidade de Deus -- the favela that served as inspiration for the eponymous movie -- I discovered that the (mis)representation of the violence in and of itself is not the sticky issue, given that it only skirts the edges of -- but is not -- complete hyperbole. The problematic issue, however, is the narrow nature of that depiction, and the suggestion that it is -- figuratively speaking -- the ocean in its entirety, rather than a wave. What results is an oversimplification of the individual and collective existence of life in this community, and a reduction of inhabitants’ lives to a series of frenzied adrenaline-fueled moments haphazardly strung together, and devoid of the dignity and substance that is subsumed in humanity.

To be fair, the complexity of life lived under heightened duress is neither easily captured nor easily explained, let alone understood. Spanish photographer Sebastián Liste tries to illuminate the bi-polar nature of favela existence and the myriad of contributing factors in much the same fashion as James Holdt does in his display of a “grim portrait of black life in 1970s America.” The setting for Liste’s photographs is Galpao da Araujo Barreto, an abandoned chocolate factory-slash-neighborhood for several families in Salvador de Bahia. He frames his famed photo-documentary, “Urban Quilombo,” in the essay below. His use of the word ‘quilombo’ is intentional, given both its denotation and connotation. Liste’s work is a brave attempt to fill in the gaps ignored by the filmmakers’ lenses, and the eyes of the public at large. What results is an intricate and holistic picture that challenges outsiders’ comprehension of the nature of misery and promise inside a favela, with implications for how those things are defined outside a slum.

Urban Quilombo
(SOURCE: La Lettre de la Photographie)

Eight years ago sixty families occupied the Galpao da Araujo Barreto, an abandoned chocolate factory in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Prior to establishing in this place, these families lived throughout the dangerous streets of the city. In 2003, these families came together to seize this deserted factory, which lay in ruins, and they transformed it into a home.

Since 2009, I have been documenting Barreto. From my studies in sociology, I understood that this was a unique community. This vast sub culture within the greater city became one extended family. They created a microcosm in which the problems of drugs, prostitution and violence tackled with the support of the community. Today, life in a community is a form of revolution. Barreto was a place where the exchange of ideas, goods and services created a bond of identity that allowed the survival of its members in a society that marginalizes them. Thus, community life is a form of struggle and resistance. Resistance to a society that considered them as a dysfunctional organ.

Two years ago I came to Barreto to explore how communities formed within fragmented societies as a mechanism of survival. During the years, I have witnessed almost everything that one can live: love, despair, betrayal, lust, passion, unity, friendships, empathy, internal and external conflicts, forgiveness and a sense of family.

Since my first visit in 2009, I continued to return several times by myself until March, 2011, when the government evicted these families from the factory, as one of the many attempts to clean up the visible poverty of the center of Brazilian cities. This is mainly due to the upcoming international events to be held in Brazil in the next years, like the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. Brazil has begun to teeter on the brink of human rights violation as it continues with the displacement of favelas in a reckless manner.

By the time, these families relocated, there were around 130 families living in Barreto, an area approximately the size of a football field. Although Barreto, the physical place, no longer exists, the community remains. The families that once lived in Barreto now live together in the Jardim das Margaridas, a marginalized neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.

My main objective is to document the emotional and physical ties between the different families, how the community is managing their relationships and meanwhile, how they continue to build their dignity. This community is a metaphor for a place where the tragic decomposition of human life combines perfectly with the magic realism of Latin America. (source)

Frederick Douglass On Love and Motherhood / "I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night"

2011-09-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

"My mother was named Harriet Bailey. She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bailey, both colored, and quite dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather ... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant -- before I knew her as my mother. It is a common [slave owner] custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the child’s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child. This is the inevitable result ... I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my life; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who lived about twelve miles from my home. She made her journeys to see me in the night, travelling the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day’s work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his or her master to the contrary—a permission which they seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a kind master. I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very little communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have while she lived, and with it her hardships and suffering. She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master’s farms, near Lee’s Mill. I was not allowed to be present during her illness, at her death, or burial. She was gone long before I knew any thing about it. Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger."
-Frederick Douglass (1845, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave")

I remember reading this narrative and referring back to it more than once. However, only recently did I remember this part. It popped into my head during a conversation with sister-friends of mine. We spoke on life, love, humanity, freedom and nation-building with our brothers. And I remembered Mama Harriet Bailey, mother to Frederick Douglass, and I thought of her walking in the night to see her son while he slept. It brought me to tears actually. I cannot imagine the resilience and will-power it would take to work from before sun up to after the sun is down and then to walk however many miles to see your child, if only in his sleep.

That is love. And it is also freedom. And it is one of the many definitions of motherhood. It is absolutely everything. And despite the brief encounters he had with her, he remembered those moments. I don't know what more we will ever learn about her, but this fact alone speaks to her character. And, we have evidence to prove how often things like this happened, how many times our Ancestors elevated in spirit to accomplish great acts of selflessness, love, righteousness, peace and harmony in the face of the exact opposite. This inspires me to no end and it forces me to understand what this life is all about.

The determination to accomplish the goal of balance by whatever means necessary. Mama Harriet understood that she needed to be with her son (and that he needed to see her face, if even through the darkness of the night) and she made the decision to do so in spite of all of the "logical" reasons not to. I can only imagine the journey through the night, in the rain or the cold, or what may have happened if ever she were late to return. But she did it still, and that made the difference because he was able to remember even that. How powerful and extraordinary.

God Bless her soul. She lives in her example and in the great contributions of her son to the world during and after his lifetime. His name still continues and her long walks were not in vain. Every investment is powerful, every part that each of us plays to ensure liberation and a return to the balance that true freedom possesses. It is necessary and we must continue to be vigilant in our deeds.

"Culture is synonymous with answers" / A conversation with Brady Goodwin: The Death of Hip-Hop, Marriage and Morals

2011-09-07T12:01:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

The Death of Hip-Hop, Marriage & Morals?
by Rohiatou Siby (Contributing Writer, The Liberator Magazine)

Hip Hop will simply amaze you
Craze you, pay you
Do whatever you say do
But black, it can't save you
-Mos Def ("Hip Hop", Black on Both Sides)

I think black Dante is correct; hip-hop does not have the power to save anyone. Hip-hop is dead; shot execution style. All that remains is the sickening stench of her corpse. Regrettably, the inviolable sanctity of marriage and morals are on the execution line as well. Consequently, I’m left asking the question: How did we arrive here?

Many of us have heard the various personifications of hip-hop and her dramatic life but, apart from being comic-book-esque, they are also true tales. My grandparents’ generation marvels at the devolution of the social mores of the hip-hop generation. The collective self-dignity that guided my forefathers, even through the psychosis that characterized slavery in the United States, is clearly lacking in my day. This observation leads me to reflect on the sacrifices my ancestors made and what gave them the strength to anticipate better and persevere. The hope of a future legacy, a strong and enhanced generation was the driving force. As Dr. Maya Angelou says, I am “the hope and the dream of the slave.”

A brief comparison of our historic and present culture leads to the supposition that my forefathers in no way envisioned misguided youth, broken families and “single ladies” anthems when they were brutally beaten, killed and imprisoned for their thirst for knowledge, desire for equality and hunger for life.

The Death of Hip Hop, Marriage & Morals, a book written by emcee and educator Brady “Phanatik” Goodwin, thoroughly addresses my question, by examining one of the most influential expressions of black culture-turned global culture. Goodwin, the co-founder of the Grammy nominated christian hip-hop powerhouse collective The Cross Movement, chronicles hip-hop's transition from a lifestyle that united urban youth through self-expression, to an instrument of self-repression. Eye-opening and intriguing, it is a scholarly piece laced with tough wordplay.

Liberatormag: You’re not the first to declare hip-hop dead. In your book you cite Mos Def and Nas among others as emcees who’ve discussed the death of the culture. In order to fully understand this statement we have to establish that hip-hop is not just a music genre, but also a culture. Next, we must define culture.

Brady: Culture, is synonymous with “answers.” It is not a noun as much as it is adjectival. It is comprised of the ways that a group of people come together to answer life’s whats. For instance, fashion is a culture’s answer to the question, “how do we cover the body and protect it from adverse elements and unauthorized eyes?” In the book, I go down the list to outline the cultural questions of food, heroes, values, art, etc.

Liberatormag: I’m glad you referenced heroes. A brief examination of the people most admired in a particular society can be indicative of its overall moral standing. Present day mainstream, youth culture highly esteems celebrities such as Lil’ Wayne and Nicki Minaj, who are artistically talented but lack moral substance. What does that reveal about the culture’s success in answering the hows of life?

Brady: It confirms that there is a disconnect between hip-hop's answers to many of the cultural questions previously mentioned and the parallel necessity of preserving a system of values. Commercialism does this to many cultures.

Liberatormag: True, but why does it seem as though hip-hop has been left more destitute than other cultures?

Brady: The fact that hip-hop was born into a capitalistic society handicapped it. Hence, thriving, in a capitalistic sense, required the adoption of commercial characteristics in its pursuits and efforts. In order for the culture to have survived without commercialism, the American civil rights generation would have had to impart the value of community over economic gain. By and large, they were too sanctimonious for that, viewing hip-hop as street-culture, or otherwise preoccupied to help mentor the hip-hop generation. As a result, hip-hop continues to thrive much like a pyramid scheme in which people continue to buy in hoping that they will profit, in some essential way, from the culture’s perpetuation.

Are We There Yet? Hip Hop and Self Realization

Liberatormag: You refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and suggest that, in the quest for success, this hierarchy be flipped upside down. You propose, as W.E.B DuBois, that it’s more important to focus on “Who I am,” instead of “What I have.” How do you think this mindset would change hip-hop's landscape?

Brady: Since hip-hop was born on the turf where gang wars were once fought; lets approach this question through battle rap which is in the DNA of almost every hip-hop form. When emcees grasp the concept of DuBois’ self-realization or the idea that we are made in the image of God, rather than battling for the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, emcees would rest in the awareness that they have already reached the top. They are then free to turn their attention to battling destructive ideologies and to help secure, for the self and community, the lower levels of human need as defined by Maslow.

Liberatormag: Hip-hop's edutainment stage was marked by emcees who held this belief. Is it possible for current mainstream urban youth culture to embrace this new or rather old approach to hip-hop? On a grander scale, can American culture turn from embracing capitalism as a core value to community building, and self-worth independent of financial status?

Brady: The very fabric of our country is threaded with capitalistic ideology. Capitalism touts the prospects of becoming personally wealthy as a means to motivate people to be as productive as possible; although this works in many cases, it can be a confusing source of motivation. What is the end goal? Is it productivity or personal wealth? If both, which is more important? If it is being productive, then a good definition of true productivity must be established to ensure one does not engage in unproductive pursuits along the way. I look at productivity through the lens of the opening chapters of the Bible’s book of Genesis. It is interesting that Adam was placed in a garden where his job was to cause (generate) as much life as possible without letting anything die. That is the goal for my relationships, pursuits and life in general.

Liberatormag: I like that. In addition to culture, you address family and ethics in the book. Why these three?

Brady: The goal was to start broad and narrow the problem down to the heart of the matter. Culture is the broader scheme that affects the way we live. If we zoom in closer we end up with family as the socializing mechanism. Finally we are left with the inner workings of our own hearts which deals with what I personally believe to be right and wrong and how I sustain my answers to those questions -- ethics. Ideally, we would start with ethics and work our way out but, in order to draw attention to why this self-introspection is necessary, I felt it would be better to address the issue in reverse.

Da Youth Dem

Liberatormag: You have the privilege of working with youth in a unique setting teaching character education; how did that opportunity arise? What are your students saying and what might that reveal about the future?

Brady: In 2008, I began teaching character education in Philly high schools. Initially and humorously, I was enlisted to teach abstinence with a “hip-hop approach,” utilizing a curriculum developed by someone on a cornfield in Nebraska. They made the curriculum “urban” by coloring the children in the booklet brown. I tried teaching this curriculum at my former high school and a kid literally fell out of his chair laughing at me -- I decided that would never happen again. After designing my own curriculum I soon realized the issue was much bigger than sex. Even though recent studies report that Philadelphia has the nation’s highest rate of sexually active preteens, there were also many character issues that needed to be addressed such as: anger, violence, leadership, character, manhood, womanhood and a host of others.

Liberatormag: How do you see the curriculum impacting students? How can we read it?

Brady: Yes, it is. I am currently plotting ways to get my programs funded and to have more individuals like myself to facilitate them in the schools, because it’s going to take more than just a small percentage of the city’s youth seeing me once a week, especially when the culture and the media bombard them with the opposite of everything I’m saying. It takes a counter-culture to counter a culture and until they come into contact with such a community, I’m just going to look like a fascinating anomaly.

Grown Boys

Liberatormag: The chapter “Grown Boy Syndrome” contains one of the most masterful pieces of alliteration in the book; it reads: “Even if young males don’t look to their own fathers, they make up composite sketches of foster father figures ... Young males will find a father figure for their family portrait, even if the foster father has to be formed from fragmented photos of fact and fiction and forced in the frame.” How exactly do young males form these composite sketches? How do men who’ve navigated their lives in this way break the cycle?

Brady: In the book I give several examples. Not the least of which is 50 Cent, who lifted his name from a Brooklyn hoodlum of the 1980s and made it his own, and Lil’ Wayne who was determined not to be like his own absent father but yet chose a grown man named Baby as his father figure. I think it’s only natural for males to find fill-ins for their failing fathers. That’s not the cycle that needs to break. The problem is that as a society, we don’t shine enough light on good men and many of these good men are so busy being good to their own that they do not look to find ways to become available as surrogates to those in need.

Liberatormag: The repositioning of the nuclear family, in which a man and woman are committed to living under the same roof as their children plays a huge role in this turnaround. This can be achieved in many ways, couples have remained committed to common law relationships longer than some legally married couples; why is marriage so important?

Brady: Marriage is the strongest form of a monogamous relationship we know of. It is strong because it invites accountability and community into the keeping of vows. It also has the state’s assistance in lifting or lessening socio-economic burdens, thereby giving the union even more fuel to successfully fly. Children deserve to know that the members of their family are committed to that union through the ups and downs of life. Spouses, who engage in the physiologically life-altering phenomenon of sex, also deserve to know that their partner is committed to their union throughout the ups and downs of life. And, contrary to growing popular opinion, society deserves to know that an individual’s sexuality is not going to be a threat to society’s well-being, i.e., the sexual threat of spreading STDs, leaving a family for another lover, or potentially breaking up someone else’s home.

Liberatormag: Although I do not know if contractual marriage as practiced today can actually guard against those assailants just mentioned, I do agree with you. None of our decisions can be made in a vacuum and when irresponsible choices are made there are always consequences incurred by the community -- the bond of marriage, holds the individual to a higher level of accountability, in the eyes of the community, than a dating or common law relationship. Before concluding the interview, are there any words you would like to share with the readers concerning who this book was written for and what can be expected in the forthcoming books?

Brady: In teaching, I noticed there was something that my generation missed and I wanted to find a way to get this missing ingredient into the community’s “drinking water.” So I say this book is for anyone working with, raising or simply concerned about urban youth and young adults. As far as subsequent books, this may sound a bit prophetic, but I wrote this book as a single man. There are issues that I left out of the book because, even though I believe very strongly in my views, I also feel that those issues are better addressed as a married man and perhaps as a married father. Nonetheless, if it takes too long for wifey to come along, I may have to go ahead and pull the trigger and produce the next gem ... time will tell.

Mensah DeMary / "Baldwin is an archetype for Specter magazine: minority, queer, hyper-intelligent, seemingly unafraid in his work"

2011-08-31T09:01:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

Anyone who knows me, knows I am a fan of beautifully written literature that speaks from a space of obscurity and oddity. My curiosity was piqued when I heard about Specter Literary Magazine through the Twitter grapevine. The planning was transparent; editor Mensah DeMary regularly tweeted about the editing process, the great submissions he'd received, and changes to the website platform. Anticipation mounted. Issue Zero launched on my birthday, August 1st, and I could not have received a better gift. A magazine built around "contemporary and experimental literature illuminating the modern experience", the Issue Zero features a range of narratives: a transgender man's coming of age story anchored to a decidedly Southern Gothic style; a brave piece on war heros, domestic violence, and revenge; and a short tale of irreverence in Mrs. Gregory's class.

I spoke with DeMary about the publication and where it is headed next. He discusses his upbringing, James Baldwin as the archetype for Specter -- "minority, queer, hyper-intelligent, seemingly unafraid in his work," the birth of the magazine through Twitter, and Junot Diaz's creation of a new language in The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

Liberatormag: How did Specter get started?

MD: My wife Athena Dixon-DeMary and I talked about starting a literary magazine for a few years. It never seemed like the right time; for various reasons, things just got in the way--important things, like marriage for example. We came up with the framework for Specter sometime in 2010; the whole "modern experience" theme, the type of writers we wanted to publish, etc. I hate to make it sound so "off-the-cuff," but I came home from work one day this past June, feeling--I don't know--motivated, I suppose, to finally get the magazine started. Athena and I talked it over and we haven't looked back since.

Liberatormag: Why Specter? Why now? The internet is full of web-based publications. What sets it apart?

MD: The word "specter," of course, is a kind of ghost--typically of a malevolent nature. We wanted some representation of people within our age group, give or take a decade -- our generation, in short. We're not evil, of course -- we're not looking to haunt anyone (sort of). But as young, educated black people, we do feel invisible at times or, maybe, we're seen as oddities, given we don't fit any typical mold. Nor should we. And we extend that sense of invisibility -- indeed, that sense of powerlessness -- to other groups, every group: Asians, Latinos, atheists, queers, and so on. Specter has no political or social agenda beyond giving talented writers -- those perhaps invisible to other publications--the chance to showcase their work and, more importantly, to find, hopefully, a literary home. To find some commonality, some kinship, which is vital to the creative process -- as well as one's sanity.

Now, whether or not this makes us distinct from other magazines--I don't know. I like to say Specter is different than other magazines because we--Athena and I--are different. Not better. Not smarter or more knowledgeable. Just different. Different and passionate about literature. Indeed, there are plenty of online magazines. it seems like new ones pop up every day. All we can do as editors and founders of Specter is be ourselves.

Liberatormag: The "Ghost Blog" feels like a mashup of sex advice, literary critique, and political commentary. It's entertaining to say the least. I laugh nervously quite often as I read. How would you describe the "Ghost Blog"? Why have you not limited the topics to just literature?

MD: Ghost+Blog ... I'm laughing as I type this…well, it's an entity onto itself. Yes, it is the official blog of Specter, but we do treat it like a separate venture. It's why we brought on Ashley Ford to be our blog editor. Given our responsibilities to the magazine, Athena and I believed we needed someone else to oversee the blog--to give it the full attention it deserves. Otherwise, Ghost+Blog would have nothing but posts from the two of us, ranting and raving about the life of lit mag editors.

To put it another way, Ghost+Blog and Specter are joined together, but serve different purposes which, we hope, funnel readers and writers into one another.

Ghost+Blog is, by its nature, a literary blog -- maybe in the vein of HTMLGIANT or We Who Are About To Die or PANK Magazine's blog (I write for the latter) -- but again, different from the aforementioned outfits because we're different. J. Bradley's sex advice column is -- well -- it can be a little explicit, but remember: his responses to the questions are in the form of flash fiction. And yes, there are political and social undertones to some of the other columns, but all of them -- every one of them -- approach topics through the spectrum of literature. That was our only prerequisite when we sent out a call for contributors back in early July: so long as it's literary-based, they have free reign with respect to their weekly posts.

Trust me, we're just as surprised as you; the type of content is not what we envisioned and, frankly, we're thrilled.

That aside, I'd like to add the following. Between the blog and our various social profiles, Specter can be perceived as a bit silly ... light-hearted, perhaps ... and we own that. We don't shy away from our silliness. What I want to reiterate, however, is our commitment to literature, to the arts in general, and to community-building. We're all very different from one another, but we're all true believers. Creativity is vital to all our lives. And we take it seriously.

Liberatormag: The Specter family is full of some interesting characters -- from the "explicitly queer black Daria-but with better clothes" to "editor, teacher, and highly-skilled beard trimmer". How did you go about building this literary family? Are you looking forward to adopting any new members?

MD: Specter's crew--and its formation--is the biggest and most pleasant surprise to me. Some of them (J. Bradley, Rion Scott, Ashley Ford) I've known through my PANK affiliation. Meanwhile, others came into our fold via Ashley Ford's connection to ChickLitZ. From there, it snowballed. Beyond the people I named, everyone else came to us (or we to them) through Twitter.

Noriko Nakada and William Henderson are nonfiction writers who were published by Hippocampus Magazine, who also published me--but none of us talked to each other before Specter; hell, we didn't know of each other's existence, most likely. I sent out a tweet looking for a lit blogger; Brett Jenkins came along and we chatted back and forth for an hour; I brought her on after I read her blog.

Kima Jones and I have had frequent conversations on Twitter over the past year, but through her Twitter campaign -- most notably, the Friday Favorites that she kicks off (favorite novels, favorite first lines, etc) -- I met and connected with other individuals (that includes you, Kameelah). Long story short, the Specter crew just ballooned in such a short time. And it makes me smile at times to see people who never talked to each other before -- people who maybe would've never thought they had commonality among one another -- talk and chat and enjoy each other's company. Just from a lit mag, of all things.

New members? Well, I'll put it like this: my role as editor-in-chief is to look at the big picture, among other things. I see Specter as a community -- a collective, really -- but one that is inclusive and, I hope, inviting to others. All of that is to say yes, I'm looking forward to new members.

Liberatormag: Specter launched Issue Zero on August 1st and clearly all the submissions were excellent, but we all have favorites. What were some of your favorites? Don't be shy.

MD: I do have favorites, and I don't think it'd be hard to find them--but I'd rather not say. Issue Zero, in whole, is a fantastic publication--one we hope to duplicate and improve upon over time.

What can I say? I'm shy.

Liberatormag: What's one text you constantly return to? I know I love anything by Harryette Mullen and Octavia Butler. I constantly return to the last few pages of Toni Morrison's Beloved as well.

MD: James Baldwin's essay collection, The Price of the Ticket. I've had it for a decade now, give or take, and I pick it up as if it's a holy text--reading whole essays or just a few passages. Maybe, subconsciously, Baldwin is an archetype for Specter: minority, queer, hyper-intelligent, seemingly unafraid in his work. Something about Baldwin's nonfiction, more so than his stories and novels, replenishes me when I need it. Any fan of Baldwin should own The Price of the Ticket. It's worth it.

Liberatormag: I am a sucker for the cleverly crafted sentences. I get excited when writers indulge their alliterative urges or like Paul Beatty, pack a sentence with highly referential descriptions. Plot matters. Characters matter, of course; however, I can get lost in one beautiful sentence. As a writer and a reader, what aspect of the written word excites you the most? Why?

MD: As a writer and reader, it's the conflation of language and story. Junot Diaz often referred to the construction of ... Oscar Wao as "finding a new language." The novel was, to me, fresh -- literally and colloquially -- in its plot and characters, but also in its language, its mixture of Spanish words, Dominican history, usage of Marvel Comics and Watchmen. I don't know if I have a particular taste in literature; I'm sure I do, but I can't define it. Let's say -- for my work and the work by others -- I am moved by language andI am moved by story or, more to the point, the story of a charismatic character, independent of his/her actual "likability."

Liberatormag: Issue 1 launches on September 5th. Anything new we should expect with this issue?

MD: Well we do have some surprises in store for Issue One -- we hope to announce them in the coming days. Overall, the issue is almost double the size of Issue Zero, which was meant to be a "preview issue." We'll have some notable names from the lit scene as well as newcomers. Expect to see a more complex, denser publication in Issue One. Not necessarily harder to read, for we think anyone can enjoy the work we selected. But Athena and I are writers at heart -- and we're firm believers in the importance of literature issuing a challenge to the reader, to make the reader work. Expect to work.

Liberatormag: There is some Twitter murmur about photography submissions. As a literary magazine, why are you moving toward photography submissions?

MD: Issue Zero launched with a site design which leaned heavily toward photography. We've since scaled that down in our current iteration, but yes--we now accept art and photography submissions. How we'll display them on the site is still up for debate, more from a technical standpoint than anything else. As to why--well, we love photography and art. The visual can tell a story much like literature--in many ways, better. But Specter is a literary magazine, first and foremost. The art selections will compliment the literature, but the words come first.

Liberatormag: Besides being the brainchild behind Specter, what other projects are you working on?

MD: Maybe I'm being coy, but I don't think of myself as Specter's brainchild. If we're a band, I'm the frontman. Not completely by choice, but of the two, Athena is much quieter and more comfortable being behind the scenes than me.

Moving forward, we'd like to expand Specter into a larger project -- a brand, perhaps. We're in the very early stages of creating a micro-press; essentially, a small publishing press which will do limited runs of fiction, nonfiction and poetry (we are Not open for manuscript submissions lol ... ease up, writers). We're also formulating ways to do cross-promotion with other people/groups. "Cross-promotion" is a weak term -- or somewhat inaccurate.

We want to build something profitable because -- well -- we hate our jobs and would prefer to focus on our creative endeavors full time. But I mentioned earlier the idea of community, of a Specter collective. Because of Specter and my dealings with other organizations, as well as my heavy Twitter usage, I see a lot of writers, photographers, artists in general attempting to "make it" on their own. it's hard to do these days when it seems like everyone wants to be a writer, editor, painter, whatever. It's hard to break through, to network and foster working relationships, on one's own.

My question is: does that have to be the case? Sure, we can do our individual thing -- my writing, your photography, for example -- but I'm thinking of a collective which pools its resources. Not just money, if money is involved at all. More importantly, information and support. A lot of artists feel alone out there; maybe that comes with the job. But some of that loneliness comes from being a black writer, a queer writer, a transgendered painter, a biracial photographer: exclusion masked, and dealt with, as loneliness. if there is a larger project, then killing that sense of exclusion in art -- in all forms -- is the end goal. How we get there? We'll see.

Liberatormag: We can't leave this interview without learning a bit more about Mensah DeMary. Tell us a bit about yourself.

MD: I'm the third of four children; I have two older brothers & and a younger sister. We grew up in southern New Jersey, about 45 minutes from Philadelphia, and our home was lively. My parents are medical professionals and they provided safe, fulfilling lives for us. Though their marriage didn't last, they did the very best for us -- for me -- and I don't think any of us can complain.

My writing life, if you will, had a slow start. I wrote two or three stories as a child, around age six or seven, but I stopped for nearly a decade. In between that time, I played sports, played the trumpet and chased girls. I started writing again at age 17; I felt it cathartic after a breakup with my high school sweetheart. Plus, it was a transitional time: college loomed, my teens were coming to an end. So I fell in love with writing again, or for the first time, and focused on poetry.

After I dropped out of college in 2000, I was a vagabond of sorts: I moved to Washington, DC for two years, came back to NJ for six months, then moved to GA (where my mother and sister still reside) for four years. To be honest, there were some catalysts predicating the wanderlust -- all of them painful -- so I don't want it perceived as though I was merely lost. I was lost but in search of something. What? I don't know. I haven't found it. I just assume its internal, now.

I guess I'm a self-taught writer, though that feels inaccurate. Books taught me. Other writers taught me. Life taught me more than I wanted to learn. But I'm not an English major or a holder of an MFA; hell, I still need to get my BA (if I go back to school at all). I like to read and I like to write. Once I realized these two tasks go hand-in-hand -- and it took a long time to learn -- I felt comfortable enough to figure out craft as I went along. Today, I write prose: fiction and personal essay/memoir. One day, I'll write a book -- maybe two -- but I'm trying not to rush myself. It's hard, though. As a writer, spend enough time on Twitter and Facebook and you'll feel inadequate in a hurry. Another one of those internal struggles.

Liberatormag: And the name? Some people know you as Mensah and others know you as Thomas.

MD: I only brought it up because it's been mentioned to me a number of times. Well, asked really -- why did I change it, what's the point, etc. I tried to explain it in a PANK blog post I wrote (entitled "mensah demary"), but it evolved into a rant of sorts on race and agency, the ability to rename oneself. Or maybe I felt defensive about it. I don't know.

Anyway, it wasn't a legal change: I'm still Thomas DeMary. "mensah" isn't a pseudonym, per se ... okay, it is, but I'm not trying to hide or protect anything. If that were the case, I wouldn't have used my real surname. No, it's a name I love. I love the sound of it; it's meaning -- third born son -- is accurate; and it does free me up to write whatever I want, but not so much as to be careless with my words.

I feel free, to put it another way, to define myself. There is a bit of rigidity in one's given name; it's a type of marker set within one's family. It sets you apart from other family members, but I feel it also cages you into your familial role: for me, that would be the introvert, the shy child who preferred to be alone. I can't change how my family views me and -- to be frank -- I'm have no desire to try. But renaming myself in the literary world gives me the space to further evolve, to try different personas, and to do it all with a shrug, as if to say, "Take it or leave it." I can't do that to my family. I tried. It doesn't work.

All of that said, I'm still a member of my family, hence my surname. I could've changed it too, but I'm not ashamed of my family and I didn't want the change viewed as a slight toward them.

...or maybe I make too much of a name. Sue me.

Life in a quilombo community / "In gentle moments, liberty and love are palpable. Life continues as it always has -- because of, not despite, tremendous odds"

2011-08-29T09:01:00.000-04:00

"Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves."

"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality."
-Che Guevara

Slavery in Brazil dawned in the 1550s with the Portuguese colonization of the northeast state of Bahia. The decades that followed ushered in a centuries-long era, where almost 4 million Africans were captured, trafficked, and used for, among other things, labor on sugar cane plantations and in gold mines. This is the context in which quilombos or mocambos -- resistance communities -- sprung, and in some regards, flourished. (By some contemporary estimates, Palmares, perhaps the most famous of all Brazilian quilombos, once housed 20,000 people.)

Quilombos were generally populated by runaway and fugitive slaves, free(d) Africans, and abolitionists, and served as sites for active rebellion against the atrocities resulting from the institution of slavery. Quilombolas -- residents of these communities -- often orchestrated raids against oppressors. Their most meaningful coup, however, may be their success in protecting their humanity and legacy through their preservation of various customs, cultures, and traditions.

Quilombo communities are still a thread in the fabric that is modern Brazilian society. Yet they are perched on a precipice, and their existence continues to be a precarious one, much like it was historically. But it is because of the imminent threat -- the possibility of annihilation through oppression that continues to manifest -- that many residents maintain a view of themselves as soldiers engaged in a battle against modern injustices, such as, among other things, battles with commercial farmers and companies over land ownership and limited access to quality education.

Despite the related and resulting strains and tensions -- and the potential for debilitating loss -- most quilombo residents live quiet lives in their rural enclaves: growing crops, hunting, fishing, and caring for their homes. As the photographs below illustrate, tenderness prevails in small acts: a mother twists her daughter’s budding locks, a bemused father stares at his infant offspring, a woman twirls in front of a mesmerized audience, lost in what must be Tambor da Criola, Bumba Meu Boi or Carimbó -- traditional music and dance forms practiced in the quilombos during the age of slavery. In these gentle moments, liberty and love are palpable. Life continues as it always has -- because of, not despite, tremendous odds.

Photographs courtesy of Brazil’s Museu do Homem do Nordeste(Museum of Man from the Northeast), located in Casa Forte, a suburb of Recife, the capital city in the state of Pernambuco.

"The importance of identities in shaping the behavior of actors" / On modern social constructivism and enlargement processes (i.e. nation-building)

2011-08-24T09:01:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

{image: European Coal and Steel Community founding}

Social Constructivist Approach and the European Union Enlargement Process
by Begum Burak

Social Constructivist Approach’s basic premises underline the important role of identity in shaping the interests of states and in parallel with that in shaping the behaviors of them. Constructivists think that not just material elements of international politics affect states’ policies but also non-material elements like that of identity, shared norms and\ or practices and social interactions among the actors (both states and international organizations) play a major role in shaping states’ policies.

It can be argued that the formation of international organizations such as the European Union (EU) can be evaluated as a clue which shows the role of constructivist thinking in international relations. From this perspective, it is obvious that, the EU enlargement process can well be explained by the help of social constructivism that reveals the importance of identity in the international sphere.

According to social constructivist approach, what actors do in international relations, the interests they hold, and the structures within which they operate are defined by social norms and ideas rather than by purely objective and material conditions. Besides, constructivists assume that continuous interaction among states may have a transformative effect on role identities of states, and consequently on their interests. In the process of social interaction among actors, identities are reproduced. Constructivists have a normative interest in promoting social change, but they pursue this by trying to explain how seemingly natural social structures like self-help or the Cold War are effects of practice.

The European Union (EU) is an economic and political union of 27 member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Economic Community (EEC) formed by six countries in the 1950s. In the intervening years the EU has grown in size by the accession of new member states, and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. The Maastricht Treaty established the European Union under its current name in 1993. The last amendment to the constitutional basis of the EU, the Treaty of Lisbon, came into force in 2009

As known, after World War II, moves towards European integration were seen by many as an escape from the extreme forms of nationalism which had devastated the continent. One such attempt to unite Europeans was the European Coal and Steel Community which, while having the modest aim of centralized control of the previously national coal and steel industries of its member states, was declared to be "a first step in the federation of Europe.( Declaration of 9 May 1950., European Commission)

In the post-Cold War era, the EU enlargement process has got a new dimension along with the emphasis put on the significance on identity. The shift in the identities of the member states while attempting to become a part of the EU is important in revealing the role that social interactions play in the international scene. These social interactions have been intensified since the collapse of the Soviet Union as the ideological divisions faded away.

{image: European Union assembly}

States acquire identities in the course of interaction with other states. In the case of EU enlargement the interstate relations and interactions lead to the constitution of common norms and practices which in the end through a shift in the identities and interests shape the behavior of the international actors. For example, liberal constructivists would argue that democracy as an identity category is socially constructed in that international norms, ideas and collective meanings define the preconditions of a democratic state. States acquire identities as ‘democratic’ through social recognition, only if the fulfillment of these conditions are recognized and validated by ‘other’ states.

It can be argued that, social constructivist approach can offer powerful accounts for the EU enlargement process precisely because it is based on a notion of intersubjective understandings and discourses being central in shaping over time the identities, interests and interactions of actors – the states –. It can be asserted that social constructivism has enormous potential for the study of the EU. Because unlike mainstream international relations theories, the social constructivist approach underlines the importance of identities in shaping the behavior of actors. Looking from this perspective it would not be hard to see the emphasis put on the political identity of the EU. The member states’ need to adopt certain values such as democracy, rule of law and liberty highlight the role of identity in the EU enlargement process. Also in terms of interests, social constructivism has much to offer the EU integration process because, social constructivism does not see interests as fixed.

Begum Burak has a BA degree in Political Science and International Relations from Marmara University, Turkey. She completed her MA degree in Istanbul University, Turkey (majoring in Turkish political life) in 2010. She has been currently occupied as a Research Assistant at Fatih University, Turkey where she is a PhD candidate.

Agriculture's necessity in liberation / "I thought of land people live on, develop and make profitable but do not own ... contemporary serfs, forced off when beneficial for proverbial landlords"

2011-08-22T09:01:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

Striving Toward Self-Sustenance: Agriculture’s Necessity in African Liberation
by Sawdayah Brownlee (Intern, The Liberator Magazine)

While picking shell peas and green beans one steaming day, I got to thinking again about why I'm doing this. I was tired, lost the connection to my task, and missed my family. I am currently interning on a farm in southwest Michigan, owned by liberal, “social justice” young whites, with all white interns, who more times than not still (for all their information on oppression) do not comprehend the extreme disparities between Africans around the world and whites of the most important and basic of necessities. Amidst the irritants (the stifling heat, persistent mosquitoes and gnats, and never-ending reminders that I am the “other”), I have to remember why I came here in the first place.

I looked for an internship that catered to a student with no extensive knowledge in planting, harvesting, and caring for an organic farm. I needed people who were passionate about feeding people food of the highest nutritional value, in ways least damaging to the product and the environment. A group who knows how to manage a farm business, worked with local farmers, and was honest to their consumers about the food they were buying. After a long, unfruitful search for African farmers in Michigan who share my vision of an organic African food network and (re)connecting Black folk with their ability to positively manipulate the Earth, I settled on the farm I currently reside.

During my moment of frustration, I reminisced on the land being seized by corporations & governments from small farmers in many countries in Africa (New York Times: "African Farmers Displaced as Investors Move In") namely Mali, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, etc. I thought of the land that so many Black people live on, develop, and make profitable for the insatiable capitalist system that rules the global economic order but do not own and are therefore contemporary serfs, forced off when beneficial for the proverbial landlords. And I thought of my family in the U.S., many who grew up working with older family members sharecropping but had the benefit of fresh food, as it came from the Earth, sans the harmful preservatives and insecticides such as (formaldehyde and carboxymethylcellulose).

{related: Battle For Brooklyn trailer}

Many of my family members can't understand why I'd do seemingly backward movement farm work, during the summer, on a white farm no less. I was then taken to George Washington Carver. This genius, who was enslaved during his childhood and treated no better upon physical emancipation, continued to labour in the field of agriculture in hopes of providing sustainability for his people and farmers abroad. His research in transforming crops like sweet potatoes and peanuts into reusable necessities such as gasoline, a variety of other palatable foods, and cosmetics helped replenish much of the soil that had been exhausted from cotton and was ahead of its time in environmental safety by excluding the use of precious fossil fuels for his creations.

Foreigners throughout the centuries have plundered Africa’s vital resources, resulting in the vast empires that exist today. Just as a global network of imports and exports has been created between developed nations and exploitation of developing nations, African people can and should create a food network of small-scale farmers across these arbitrary nation-state lines. While "you can’t get back what you never owned"* we should be the stewards of the land granted to us from Nature and use it responsibly to produce food fit for human consumption (*as Nana Peazant from the film ‘Daughters of the Dust’ noted). Land “ownership” in the African worldview, taking back control of our familial lands, is integral to reclaiming our selves, maintaining our families, and nation-building. Self-sustenance saves money by not relying on grocery stores (whose prices will inevitably rise with the decrease of arable land and water fit for consumption), conserves the Earth’s swiftly decreasing materials by not relying on fuel and packaging to transport food over long distances, and re-builds and maintains the innate spiritual connection we share with the Earth. Growing your own food will require one to be politically responsible, as it is tied to land rights (whether it be the regulations of a suburban/urban complex or acres in a state); as an African person anywhere in the world you will have to defend your right to grow natural produce to heal your Self and contribute to the restoration of the Earth.

It dawned on me during my junior year of university that if we don’t learn how to heal our Earth and respect our bodies by providing it with the authentic food it needs (to replenish itself and ourselves), we’ll perish. We can and will remain slaves to a system that creates and manufactures products that break down brain cells and keep oppressed peoples mindless to the fact that they are in fact oppressed if we do not re-member how to grow our own foods. Small-scale farming, wherever you are, is the key to a healthier life as it is not as exhaustive to the soil as commercial farming and uses less of the already dwindling water supply. The flavor of food grown nearby is also more delicious because it does not require preservatives (which will alter a fresher, sweeter, or more savory [depending on the crop] flavor) to maintain natural flavors. Children grown up on food as it comes from the Earth will be less enticed to eat or purchase food that has been waxed or dyed to appeal to the popular look of fruits and vegetables today. Liberation is in the ground we’re at.

I don't have any amazing ideas for inventions (yet) but I’m striving to learn all that I can about permaculture. This would give one the skills to design a farm in any type of environment and train/work with people unfamiliar to the field in using where they reside for self-sustenance. If We (African people) can plant/harvest (in a manner that sustains the Earth we use), sell, and trade subsistence/cash crops with each other, around the world, I think we'd have an amazing liberation scheme on our hands. Agriculture, done sustainably, can not only heal the Earth but also our communities and our spirits. Black people are master preservationists. We can be just as proficient at agriculture (again).

These connections are why I sought out an agricultural internship. I’m learning the different ways of planting, the seasons, weeding, and the basics of sustainable agriculture, organic farming, and agri-business. I have the time and resources here to research more on how to till the land in the few seasons that we have left (four definitive seasons appear to be diminishing).

I thought being here, in a small white town in West Michigan, would bury my soul but in all moments, especially when I'm alone, my Ori is ever present. Moferefun to my Egun and all the Orisa for always being with me and whispering to me of the necessity of these skills. It may not be my "dream job (or internship)," but I'm definitely getting what I need. I came to learn how to find/develop a cooperation of people dedicated to providing wholesome food to consumers, growing the food and the labyrinth of considerations that must be reviewed, and how to ultimately use what you grow as energy that won’t disintegrate this planet or our bodies. As my sister reminded me, “I’m doing what I have to do, to do what I want to do.”

NYC / Post-Charlie Parker Festival Open Jam Session at Univ. of the Streets

2011-08-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

On August 28th, we're helping bring the Post-Charlie Parker Festival Open Jam Session to the University of the Streets in the Lower East Side. Located just steps from where Bird used to live, the night will feature local legends. Bring an instrument to play, or come soak it all up at this intimate, classic Manhattan venue. Donations (suggested: $15) will go toward sustaining programming at the University of the Streets.

Botched paramilitary police raids: An epidemic of 'isolated incidents' / Cato Institute report + Google Maps refutes notion that Aiyana Stanley-Jones case was an aberration

2011-08-15T13:01:00.002-04:00

This map from the CATO Institute -- a part of their research project "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America" -- illustrates the combined power of reporting and data visualization. It also highlights a truly disturbing trend -- the increasing militarization of the police force in this country and also refutes the notion that tragedies such as the case of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, a seven-year-old girl who was killed during a SWAT raid on her home in Detroit last year are aberrations.

Cato Institute Uses Google Maps to Show Botched SWAT Raids
(SOURCE: Fast Company)

The Cato Institute has put together something it calls a Raid Map, using Google Maps to show all the paramilitary raids done by government agencies that haven't quite worked out the way they should have. Or, as the Cato Institute puts it, "botched." The different colored pins signify different ways each raid went wrong, from the deaths of officers and innocents, through mistaken identity, to overuse of force, and you can isolate the data by state, year and type of cock-up, should you so wish. "Defenders of SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics say such incidents are rare," says the Institute. "The map below aims to refute that notion" -- as do the recently reported, tragic shooting deaths of a 7-year-old girl in Detroit and this guy's dog. Just think how much more refuting the map could have done had they opened it up to crowdsourcing. (source)

"If a widespread pattern of [knock-and-announce] violations were shown ... there would be reason for grave concern."
-Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy (Hudson v. Michigan; June 15, 2006)

Why we still need folk heroes / "The most potent freedom dreams ... Durant raises the fundamental to new poetic heights"

2011-08-12T13:01:00.012-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

{image via Designshak}

This past week, NBA all-star Kevin Durant took his talents to Harlem’s legendary Holcombe Rucker park. Historically, Rucker park has been the site where streetball legends and could-have-beens collide with the pros, often demonstrating how thin the line is between the guys with multi-million dollar contracts and the neighborhood legends. It’s a space where a Pee-Wee Kirkland or God Shammgod hold the same level of reverence as Tiny Archibald or Stephon Marbury. In the black American tradition, these counterpublic spaces, whether in sport, music or infrapolitics, have historically been sites where the most potent freedom dreams have been created. The juke joints, storefront churches and segregated sports leagues have allowed the black community to bare witness and testify to the greatness of its many folk legends.

{image via John Henry iOS app}

Durant’s virtuosic 66 points performance echoed back to an era where the line between elite and vernacular was always blurry. A product of Prince George county in Maryland, which houses both the largest black middle-class in the country and a growing number of poor folks being gentrified out of Washington, DC, Durant embodies the modern day version of this tension in the black community. Lacking the otherworldly athleticism of a Lebron James or the impossible bulk of a Dwight Howard, Durant’s hoop aesthetic is rooted in the minimalism of a different era. Simply put, he is a jump shooter.

Built like Reed Richards from the Fantastic Four, Durant uses his almost never-ending reach to use one of basketball’s most basic skills with near surgical precision. His skinny arms repeat the same motion with a yeoman like consistency. In this way, the smooth, uncomplicated move that everyone who has ever played basketball knows how to do; yet, in the dare-you-to-stop-me consistency, Durant raises the fundamental to new poetic heights.

On the other side of the popular culture spectrum, Marvel Comics has decided to introduce an African-American Spiderman. Following the death of Peter Parker in the Ultimate Spiderman series, a new hero, who is of black American and Puerto Rican ancestry, will step into the webslinger’s shoes and become the new neighborhood friendly Spiderman. Marvel has historically been on the cutting edge of the comic book industry with regards to writing about heroes that faced discrimination. In recent years, however, Marvel has struggled in all but a few attempts to grapple with the legacy of racial, gender, and sexual oppression. Some critics have rightly articulated a near white-washing of American history (The New York Times) in order to make their major motion picture films more palatable to a larger audience.

Introducing a new Spiderman, not only as a black man, but as a person of African descent with ties to several points in the Black Atlantic, introduces a more complicated, “post-soul” notion of black masculinity. Where some writers, most notably Dwayne McDuffie, have consistently troubled the retrograde representation of African-Americans in comic books, few have sought to expand what it means to be black in the mythical realm of superheroes. While some may argue that there are more serious battles to be fought, if not in our political culture, at least in more rigorous realms of popular culture like music and film, think about this: What have been some the highest grossing major motion pictures of the last 10 years?

In an era where we have only recently begun to destabilize the whiteness -- especially white masculinity -- as the default norm in popular culture, the battles occurring in sports and comic books continue to show the staying power of white fantasy in our cultural imagination. In this way, it makes perfect sense that as more and more people of color occupy positions of power in the real world, wars over seemingly insignificant cultural spaces will also flare up. And, while it sometimes appears as though the cultural mainstream will always be heavily mediated -- by power, capital, or simply the limits of the mainstream imagination -- there will always be space for alternative freedom dreams amongst the rhythm and rejoice of the folk.

"A fool for the revolution in the way Paul meant when he spoke of being 'a fool for Christ.' That foolishness can move the mountains of oppression; it is our great leap and our commitment to the dead and the unborn" / Huey Newton on time, love, death and change

2011-08-11T13:01:00.001-04:00

I Am We
by Huey P. Newton (excerpted from Revolutionary Suicide)

"There is an old African saying, "I am we." If you met an African in ancient times and asked him who he was, he would reply, "I am we. This is revolutionary suicide: I, we, all of us are the one and the multitude.

So many of my comrades are gone now. Some tight partners, crime partners, and brothers off the block are begging on the street. Others are in asylum, penitentiary, or grave. They are all suicides of one kind of another who had the sensitivity and tragic imagination to see the oppression. Some overcame; they are the revolutionary suicides. Others were reactionary suicides who either overestimated or underestimated the enemy, but in any case were powerless to change their conception of the oppressor.

The differences lies in hope and desire. By hoping and desiring, the revolutionary suicide chooses life; he is, in the words of Nietzsche, "an arrow of longing for another shore." Both suicides despise tyranny, but the revolutionary is both a great despiser and a great adorer who longs for another shore.

The reactionary suicide must learn, as his brother the revolutionary has learned, that the desert is not a circle. It is a spiral. When we have passed through the desert, nothing will be the same.

You cannot bare your throat to the murderer. As George Jackson said, you must defend yourself and take the dragon position as in karate and make the front kick and the back kick when you are surrounded. You do not beg because your enemy comes with the butcher knife and the hatchet in the other. "He will not become a Buddhist over night."

The Preacher said that the wise man and the fool have the same end: they go to the grave as a dog. Who sends us to the grave? The unknowable, the force that dictates to all classes, all territories, all ideologies; he is death, the Big Boss. An ambitious man seeks to dethrone the Big Boss, to free himself, to control when and how he will go to the grave.

There is another illuminating story of the wise man and the fool, found in Mao's Little Red Book. A foolish old man went to the North Mountain and began to dig; a wise old man passed by and said, "Why do you dig; foolish old man? Do you not know that you cannot move the mountain with a little shovel?" But the foolish old man answered resolutely, "While the mountain cannot get any higher, it will get lower with each shovelful. When I pass on, my sons and his sons and his son's sons will go on making the mountain lower. Why can't we move the mountain?"

And the foolish old man kept digging, and the generations that followed after him, and the wise old man looked on in disgust. But the resoluteness and the spirit of the generations that followed the foolish old man touched God's heart, and God sent two angels who put the mountain on their backs and moved the mountain.

This is the story Mao told. When he spoke of God he meant the six hundred million who had helped him to move imperialism and bourgeois thinking, the two great mountains.

The reactionary suicide is "wise," and the revolutionary suicide is a "fool," a fool for the revolution in the way Paul meant when he spoke of being "a fool for Christ." That foolishness can move the mountains of oppression; it is our great leap and our commitment to the dead and the unborn.

We will touch God's heart; we will touch the people's heart, and together we will move the mountain."

On Going Home / "Kente cloth, conversations and kindness"

2011-08-05T12:01:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

{All photos via Anyabwile Love; Above: Spirit-Lifters, Beautiful babies encountered on the road from the Elmina dungeons where enslaved Africans were held before being shipped to the west.}

On Going Home
by Anyabwile Love (Guest Contributor, The Liberator Magazine)

It has been almost four weeks since I arrived in Ghana. Shortly before my departure, many would ask me if I was excited, or if I was getting excited to be going. My response ranged from "Surprisingly, no" to "Not yet!" I would attribute my lack of excitement to the stress of still being in the folds of writing a paper at the time, to handling last minute arrangements for my daughter’s own summer program at SMU in Dallas, to waiting for financial aid from school to kick in. However, what I did not let in on is that while this trip was something that I had looked forward to for both the cultural and academic immersion I would be privileged to experience, I never saw it as traveling or a vacation but more so as just going home. Albeit, home for the first time, but back to a place that I had grown accustomed to in my mind and imagination as home nonetheless. I think it important right now to state that for almost two decades I have rejected the utopia concept of Africa, the homogenized cultural/landmass concept of Africa; see Nas in Belly “...I just want to go to AFRICA.”, or the shallow ‘metaphysical-temporal-spatial life transforming powers of Africa,' that some have falsely admitted to receiving while here. (I say this last one with all of my years of training in both Sarcasm and B.S. Detection Studies). Needless to say I felt pretty level-headed as I prepared for my trip back home.

What I looked forward to most aside from being able to study, read and write about African music and its connection to music in America produced by Africans as an extension of conversations that have been interrupted by Western imperialism and not a reaction to harsh conditions, (shameless dissertation plug) was the chance to photograph real folk doing human things and to sit in spaces with folk and simply talk. The latter for me is such a part of my personality and I find conversation to be a very effective icebreaker when you intend to point a large camera at a complete stranger. I followed in a good friend's path and decided to only use a fixed manual lens (50MM) when shooting. For one it forces me to learn my camera more and also you have to get closer to your subjects-no sideline safe shooting. This forced proximity usually facilities my enjoyment of conversation with regular folk doing human things. During my visit here it has not been uncommon, and probably expected by now, for me to venture off alone from our normal tour and into a small adjacent town or market and just sit and watch folk; hoping that my presence alone would spark their interest and conversation could begin. The first of these many mini-journeys happened at the Dubois Center when I walked back to speak to our tour guide and our conversations led to him pulling out Dubois’s original topography drawings that he used in his field research for The Philadelphia Negro, or at Elmina Fort when I ventured out of that hellish structure for air and space and found a fishers/boat market filled with some of the most beautiful faces of African children.

However it was less of a venture and more of an intentional introduction with a stranger that has made this first trip home validating, humbling, amazing and dare I say exciting. One of the things that I hoped my conversations would include while here would be about the often-assumed perceptions of how we as Africans view one another on both sides of the Atlantic. I am staying in an almost gated student hostel community here on campus-so where better to engage in these conversations? Most students here are in exams, and study with such ferocity that they see little more than their books and laptops. My dissertation advisor Dr. Abu Abarry, a native Ghanaian, tells stories that there used to be ambulances on stand-by during exam weeks for students who would collapse under the pressure of the entire 3-week process. But armed with my little bit of Twi instructions I would greet anyone I saw of interest with maa chi or maa ha (good morning or good afternoon) in hopes of sparking dialogue. One late evening me and a brotha here were both going into the makeshift study lounge and I greeted him, maa ha! Jonathan, a Cape Coast born Ghanian, was here at Legon University to take his exams and prepare for grad school. Our conversation that night began with academic interests and quickly went into how Blacks in America are perceived by some of the intelligentsia of Ghana (this was sparked in part by his welcomed surprise that I was here working on the completion of my PhD). He pulled no punches when he said he always believed that we were lazy and criminals. He did not say it as though he was convinced of these things but it was all he saw from their media outlets here and from Europe. I expressed the ideas of the "savage African" and the "african-booty-scratcher" concepts that I was exposed to as a child and that many still believe back in the states. We talked and shared the widely held stereotypical notions of our respective cultures as well as their own agency and failures. As our talk ended that night, we agreed to continue with them when we saw each other again. Since then, these talks and many more have continued several times a week. I have learned that he is getting married in October (he made it a point to call his fiance in Elmina and ask her to meet me last week when we visited), that he is a grade school teacher and hopes Ghana will improve their education system for the benefit of its children, and also that he wants several children of his own and plans to major in criminal psychology.

Last Sunday when I got back from a weekend in Cape Coast Jonathan and I talked at length about the Coast, Elmina, other places that I should explore off the beaten tourist path, and his final week of exams. The last thing he shared with me that night after I told him that I would be visiting the kente cloth village in the next week was the idea of ‘expensive’, as Ghanaians understand it. It was after I told him that I was sure I wouldn’t be able to afford any of the authentic woven kente cloth because it was too expensive that he shared that Ghanaians use the term expensive to suggest something of value because it is not used/worn often. For instance he said if I was to buy even a cheap suit it would be ‘expensive’ if I only wore it on special occasions. I thanked him but walked away still knowing that that kente cloth was going to be expensive-in the USA kind of way-to me.

Last night while sipping on Ghanaian Club and talking smack at the outside lounge of the hostel, Jonathan approached and asked if I had a few minutes to talk. He said he had to go to his dorm and would be right back. We met outside my dorm room and he approached me while pulling from a huge bag another huge bag with deep blue and gold woven fabric inside. As he smiled he ripped the bag open and pulled out an 8x4 ft piece of kente cloth and begin to explain to me that he and his wife went to the kente cloth weaver's village the day before to get it for me. He further explained that he wanted me to take back home an ‘expensive’ piece of Africa. As he showed me how to drape myself in it he said that when I wear it back home, many will not get it but that those who are African and love Africa will. As I fought back my tears from his genuine generosity with all of my alpha-male energy, he ended by saying that he was thankful for our talks and that he sees my folk in America in such a different way and much more like him than he ever imagined. We exchanged contact info at which point he notified me that the next day was his last at Legon and he would be returning back to the Coast on Friday-exams complete. We hugged and gave each other pounds. I returned to my room and the alpha-male energy gave way to tears. I hope when I get back to the US that I can think of an appropriate gift to give Jonathan and his wife that expresses my gratitude for the kente cloth, conversations and kindness.

It was in this exchange and possibly our last conversation that my visit home to Ghana came full circle. I learned that at our core we wish to be seen as humans and would rather our humanity be our introductions to strangers-known or unknown-as opposed to preconceived notions. While my exchanges with Jonathan were the most pronounced they were not the only one that reinforced the kindness that has flowed onto me here. There is our driver Francis who walked me behind the Cape Coast Fort and found a private spot for me so that in his words ‘I could have the time and privacy that I needed to make my offerings’ and prayers to my Egun and Yemoja. From the older woman in Madina market who told me and another TU student how best to get to the stilted-river communities on bus; to the cleaning woman here who pried my clothes away from me yesterday as I attempted to bucket hand-wash them in the courtyard, and after laughing and pointing at my obvious inadequacy, washed and hung them for me; to Ali, a brother of extraordinary character, comedy and great story-teller who makes sure that all the meals he makes are vegan friendly for me before he adds his meat to them (incidentally having a Ghanaian brother as a roommate who can cook helps these broke pockets of mine); to the great young amazing visual artist here Frank Nortei Nortey who saw my love for his paintings and gave me one that I could pay for when ‘I get back to the states’; to our guest African History professor, Dr. Adjaye, who signed and gave me his personal copy of his edited text Language, Rhythm, and Sound; the AK47 toting, ice-grilled, extremely kind police officer who let me use his cell phone to call my bank when my ATM card wasn’t working; and the young brother at the Bush Canteen who gave me a geography and food history lesson of Ghana while we ate banku and okra stew and shared from the same rinse bowl. These exchanges and acts of kindness and so many more are what I plan to bring back with me as a reminder of the power of the spoken word and our humanity as Africans all over this planet wherever we find ourselves. I only hope that I gave the same in return to the folk that I met and spoke with here.

I will be returning state side in a little over two weeks. Before then I have much more writing to do for my dissertation, piles of books to read, a few more places to tour and much more exploring to do on my own. Tonight my self-guided explorations will begin with a tro-tro (more on tro-tros when I get back) ride to 37 Military stop, then connect with a taxi to the Brazil House in James Town, Accra for a celebration of the life of artist, poet, actor, pan-Africanist, Abdias Nascimento, as well as a search for more conversation while there. While my Twi does little more than confuse the non-English speakers I come in contact with, I am confident that our nods, smiles, greetings and silence will be enough for our humanity to be revealed yet again.

Thoughts on constantly achieving this mind-body practice / "More than being proud to be seen in novelty"

2011-08-04T12:01:00.002-04:00

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In "Literacy: Reading the Word & the World", Paulo Freire recalls an adult literacy workbook in Sao Tome with pictures in it. Next to a picture of a group of young people swimming it is written, "It is by swimming that one learns to swim." Next to a picture of youths working it is written, "It is by working that one learns to work." And at the bottom of the page it is written, "By practicing we learn to practice better." A profound truth on the importance of mind-body practice for the simple sake of practicing living better.

But there's just something about the way Bird put it -- this fusion of jazz and mdw ntr -- that is so sweet:

“Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.”
-Charlie Parker

And perhaps this is what we feel when we get tired of taking pictures of moments. If, however, we choose for our processes of literacy to never end, to always tell our stories humbly, then all of our texts and works (written words, spoken words, photos, videos, songs, performances) aren't just pictures of individual moments, but also snapshots of a collective eternity full of texts and works (stories) that guide us. We sort of learn that our stories are something valuable when we learn that others have preserved their stories, but we only know why stories are preserved when we come to know why our stories are worth preserving. Connection is necessary to that process. And faith is the result of such connection. Likewise, we know good listening because we've witnessed it and can testify to its power. The more we practice good listening, in faith, the more we find ourselves guided by the bodies of stories out there, the less we find ourselves guided by just our individual moments. More than being proud to be seen in novelty, we're honored -- at peace -- when we practice better, with the possibility of being a literal part of the classic; a shining measure of time in a timeless eternity.

"People ask me why I focus on this and not the pretty stuff ... Til my people not dying anymore, my heart is with them" / An interview with Akintola Hanif

2011-08-01T12:01:00.009-04:00

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{images via Akintola Hanif}

We first talked with Akintola "Hyze" Hanif in 2006 (Liberatormag 5.2). We recently caught up with him again and he's still handling business.

"I am always chasing that divine and insightful image" says Hanif, the brainchild behind Hycide magazine. Admirers of Hanif know that his images carry a divine energy. The subjects of his photographs, society's outcasts -- gang bangers, young lesbians, former crack addicts, shed the traditional layers of depravity and assume an almost regal presence in his photographs. A visual blessing of sorts, his photographs dance between a celebration of oft-ignored greatness and a litany for understanding. "Understanding is necessary for progression" he says. "I just wanted to do my part to share the hearts and intentions of the dispossessed, marginalized, the have-nots who I just see as beautiful at their core" Hanif humbly comments.

As such, it is of no surprise that this past June, Hanif and his team launched Hycide magazine. Hycide, derived from the Hebrew "Hyram" meaning "noble" or "exalted and -cide from the Latin "cida", for killing, Hycide is founded on the practice of "killing or negating elitist ideals to create empathy and understanding for the disenfranchised or dispossessed." Conceptually born in 2005 and physically manifested in 2011, Hycide magazine is blossoming and planting seeds for international collaboration.

Before Hycide magazine took form, Hanif was airbrushing and painting murals on the walls and storefronts in New York City. Born to an herbalist and "renaissance man" in Brooklyn Heights, Hanif was introduced to the world of graffiti at age 9 in 1981. Within a few short years, Hanif went on to have one of his murals is featured in Henry Chalfant’s 1985 book "Spraycan Art" garnering him the position as a young and talented artist. "I ran into a graffiti writing dude who happened to be a criminal but turned out to be my best friend named Wolf. He gave me the name Hyze, H-Y-Z-E which later turned into Hycide" he reminisces. As the interview continues, Hanif sketches a few graffiti tags on his yellow legal pad. "When I was 28, I went back and got my degree in Visual Communication. I took a photography class and rediscovered my passion for photography" he remembers. Even though he had stacks of photo albums in his home and always carried a camera around, he never imagined photography as an actual career. That all changed, "when I started playing with depth of field and aperture and how to freeze action, I was just in love." This love was translated into the inaugural edition of Hycide.

The 52-page perfect bound magazine features several stories including Black Hiroshima, a commentary on lingering effects of the 1980s crack epidemic; That Wave, a single portrait of mysterious Ghost aka G-Man who asserts, "I'm Muslim but I'm also a gangbanger"; Lou Grab, a memorial for Hanif's friend Luis Rivera Jr; and Steel & Velvet, iconic photographs from Jamel Shabazz. One story in particular grabbed my attention. Hycide's first issue features a photo essay on urban lesbians who call themselves Aggressives, an emerging subculture of mainly lesbians of color who may otherwise be considered "studs" or "butch". Hanif's closely cropped portraits delicately illustrate both strength and vulnerability all while disrupting the parameters of normative gender. These images not only tell us about the young women -- Kirah, Mikyah, and Chink Hef; they also tell us about ourselves. "We usually see each other through the flaws in our own egos and insecurities, rather than for what's in our hearts and intention," Hanif asserts. As such, Hycide's mission goes beyond a platform for the "neglected and misunderstood"; Hycide magazine is also a mirror. A mid-section shot displaying sagged jeans, tattooed arms, a studded belt, and a large jewel encrusted necklace that reads "Brick Squad", forces the viewer to confront that which they see versus that which they expect to see.

Intrigued by his conversations and Dee Ree's film Pariah, he excitedly shares that "this is turning into a whole book and film project" documenting the entire spectrum of urban lesbian identities. Given Hanif's desire to build Hycide as an international publication, a collaboration with photographer Zanele Muholi of South Africa seems apropos. Describing her work as "mapping and archiving a visual history of Black lesbians in post-Apartheid South Africa", Muholi's shots are intimate and private portraits of Black lesbians in love. Hanif's images, while intimate in a more public way still illustrate his ability to quickly build relationships with the people he photographs.

Maybe there is something in his demeanor and physical presence that naturally calms those around him. When he speaks, he is gentle, but deliberate. Standing at over six feet tall, his presence is not overbearing but protective. He makes an effort to maintain steady eye contact and nothing is entangled in subtext as he speaks. These elements are all essential. However, Hanif's ability to effortlessly travel through different communities, communities that have legitimate reason to distrust the media is rooted in one core principle: no judgment.

"I want to tell the stories in objective way because most people are overly judgmental due to lack of understanding" Hanif says. I push him a bit on this. "How is it possible not to be judgmental?" "Is objectivity elusive and illusory?" I wonder. "Honestly," he responds, "I may be guilty of that at times but when I am really thinking clearly and not reactionary, I don't do that because I know I am not that much different." "I am only a check away from being in the same situation" he continues. He finds that people hasten to judgment because they imagine infinite degrees of separation between them self and the person they are interacting with. Let Hanif tell it, "those degrees of separation are basically non-existent". Hycide's mission is to help people see those "common denominators" and "common threads". One common thread is the pursuit of freedom.

In a 2005 mixed-media piece "Freedom of Everybody Dies", Hanif blended 500 still photographs and 3 minutes of video footage of the now defunct Arcadian Gardens or "The Bity", a housing project in East Orange, New Jersey. The title left nothing to the imagination. Very bluntly, Hanif warns, "if we don't do something to help everybody have the same level of freedom, it's going to come back to kill us or our children". He leans in a bit and with a delicate but urgent tone says, "if we are not given the equal opportunity to do something different and ride the same wave that the more fortunate are allowed to ride then the less fortunate will kill themselves, literally or figuratively and in turn kill those closest to them, literally or figuratively". We stand at a crossroads.

Back in my Bay Area hometown of East Palo Alto, a town of 30,000 people, young men are being gunned down everyday. My cousin was shot and killed in Los Angeles a year ago. My old students lost a family member almost every month. Hycide is a magazine, but it has the power to be more than just a magazine. In the same way that Jamel Shabazz's photographs are a "visual medicine", Hycide has the potential to give voice to not only the suffering that goes unnoticed, but potential solutions. Right now, Hycide is solely a magazine however, in ten years, Hanif imagines, "Hycide everything -- Hycide books, Hycide films. The empire will be complete."

Before leaving his Newark studio, Hanif leaves me with a final thought. "I think I've said this before, but I am really passionate about this", he reminds me. He continues "You know, people ask me why I focus on this and not the pretty stuff." Hanif's cadence intensifies. "I always say because our children and my people are dying. While we're running around being fancy, you know, and fly, and trying to be all sophisticated and cute, my people are dying. That's what I am seeing around me." He slows his cadence, ending with the commitment, "so until I don't see that anymore, my focus is right here. Til my people not dying anymore, my heart is with them."

Pete Rock & Smif-n-Wessun concert / Police brutality press conference [video]

2011-07-29T12:01:00.001-04:00

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Our coverage of the recent press conference held in response to the infamous confrontation with police at the recent Pete Rock and Smif-n-Wessun concert in New York City.

(SOURCE: NY1) Advocates Claim Fight By Manhattan Club Was Police Brutality: Community members, hip hop artists, local activists and elected officials gathered on the steps of City Hall today to show support for the five people charged in connection with a confrontation with police outside a Lower East Side club last week. They said the five were beaten, maced and arrested by police officers at an album release party and claimed the officers used excessive force. They also called for an end to police brutality. "I seen them grab my friend Louie and beat him up, and then someone called to me, 'Pete, your wife, your wife.' So I ran outside, and I see Officer Chow pushing my wife and daughter to the ground, like they attacked them," said hip-hop artist Pete Rock. "Cy Vance the [Manhattan district attorney], black people put your behind in office, so you need to drop these charges and charge the police," said Brooklyn Councilman Charles Barron. The five people arrested were charged with assault and disorderly conduct. Several police officers and clubgoers were injured. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said police officers had every right to defend themselves and used appropriate force in doing so. (source)

Jamel Shabazz / Traveling back in time so that we can move forward

2011-07-26T12:01:00.003-04:00

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{image via Jamel Shabazz}

This is just a teaser! The full version of the Jamel Shabazz story, including more on his upbringing, his past work, and new projects, is scheduled for our 2011 Winter issue. To receive that when it's released, be sure to become a member.

Armed with a Canon AE-1, an enduring spirit, and a clear vision, Jamel Shabazz captured iconic scenes of New York City life in the 1980s earning international praise.

Shabazz's photographs of young Black men donning shell-toe Adidas and cazal glasses pigeon-holed him as a "hip hop photographer". However, Shabazz is more than that. He is a historian. He is a mentor. He is an educator, captivating audiences in university halls and street corners alike. He is a lover, unabashedly approaching his subjects with "I see greatness with you" and ending with, "I both love you and recognize your power".

Standing 6-foot-3 tall, Shabazz wore a cognac colored leather jacket, square-framed gold glasses, and a low cut caesar with a left part. As he addressed the audience at the April NYU Symposium on Black Portraiture, he spoke with the excitement of the 15-year old kid who first picked up his mother's Kodak Instamatic camera.

His eyes were alert. He moved in closer to the audience as if he were about to tell us a story or maybe a secret.

Proudly standing next to a projection of his images in Vanderbilt Hall, Lonnie Liston Smith's ethereal "Astral Traveling" (1973) lulled the audience. Shabazz narrated with restraint. Each photograph settled gracefully into a saxophone note that led us on a journey through the 1980s: Puerto Rican lovers in matching outfits sharing an embrace on the train; young black men posing in tailor made leather jackets kangol caps and cazal glasses; sisters and brothers from the Fruit of Islam in a dignified pose; gingerly dressed women sporting Shearling Sheepskin coats during the New York winter; boys playing in the summer heat, clothing sodden, whilst drinking from an opened fire hydrant--a row of generously windowed brownstones resting in the background. He chronicled an entire generation.

With Sun Ra's 1978 "That's How I Feel" as a close second, Shabazz could not have chosen a more apropos set of chords than "Astral Traveling". The spacey and spiritual beat conjured up an oddly textured nostalgia. It was odd for us 20-somethings in audience, who had at most five good years in the 80s and relied on lurid film remakes and abandoned photo albums to scaffold our memories of that decade. It was textured for the others who saw themselves, their family, and their neighbors floating across the screen. As the echoes of the electronic keyboard receded, and the show transitioned into its final white slide, we begrudgingly traveled back to the present.

In a time when the Black community's sense of hope is blunted by a ceaseless economic depression, a mounting AIDS epidemic, massive unemployment, and escalating incarceration, the present feels bleak. Like Sun Ra's music lets us imagine a glorious future, and Gil Scott-Heron doled out a rhythmic indictment of the present laced with a story of survival, Shabazz's images offered possibility. And maybe, escape.

"Visual Medicine" is what he calls his work, particularly A Time Before Crack. "It was then that I realized that the images I made had a certain psychological impact on the viewer" Shabazz recalls. With the "countless stories of grown men emotionally breaking down in bookstores across the city while looking at that book" he came to see how his photographs "reminded them of a better time when African Americans in this country were making strides and we had a spirit of love and unity in our communities." On an almost somber note, he concluded, "for some they find both an avenue of escape and healing in looking at my images. Just like an old love song can conjure up certain feelings and emotions that will temporarily ease pain." Shabazz's photographs go beyond escapist politics. Not only do his photographs illustrate what we were; they also show us what we still have the potential to be.

Upcoming Projects from Jamel Shabazz

Exhibits
Back in the Days: REMIX Solo Photo Exhibit at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) on display throughout the summer

Crown Heights Gold: Examining Race Relations and Healing in Crown Heights, Brooklyn During the 20 Years Since the 1991 Riot Group Exhibit at Skylight Gallery (Opening Thursday, July 28)

Publications
Self-publishing a book entitled Represent, Volume 1. Represent features recent work from 2005-2011 with photographs taken in France, Italy, Korea, Morocco, Ethiopia, Brazil and countless other places. (Available in early August through Blurb)

Serving as the Creative Consultant for Hycide Magazine

Community Work
Invited to work as a teaching artist at the International Center of Photography and the Friends of the Island Academy (an organization working with youth returning from Rikers Island)

Done with taking pictures of moments / "We snapped pictures ... hoping our uploads would be able to tell the story we wouldn’t be able to tell ourselves"

2011-07-25T12:01:00.002-04:00

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I asked my good artist friend last month while she was tabling some ideas of a future planned exhibit on memory and identity whether she feels like installation art is at all limiting because of the particular physical aspects of it. She explained that she is intrigued by the body’s relationship to art and how the art interacts with it as the body moves. In her body of work, she leaves room for the art to react and change as dynamically as humans do -- as close as she can get to how the interaction would occur in nature. I thought of this maybe a day or so later as I stood peering over a ledge of a cliff into the waters of San Pedro -- and specifically, I considered how the canvas that we were observing was different, subtly different, with each moment that passed. I really can’t describe it, it was one of those “you had to be there” kinds of things. I was humbled by nature’s way of going through its respective motions and it was simply beautiful.

In another time, the documentarian in me would have wanted to feverishly capture each moment so as to have a close-to-accurate point of reference for future recollection. Like last summer with a few of some of my closest friends, I saw the most magnificent sunset-sunrise-sunset that I’ve ever seen in my life, and have since been at a loss for words trying to explain it. I remember wanting to freeze the moment in time. Then, I realize that it’s not that I wanted to freeze it in time, it’s that I wanted the feeling at the time to never stop happening -- I wanted the feeling that I had in relation to what I was experiencing to remain static. As a pre-meditated substitute to the real feeling, each second that went by and the canvas changed, we snapped pictures to preserve the moments -- hoping that our uploads later would be able to tell the story that we wouldn’t be able to tell ourselves.

They couldn't/can’t.

It occurred to me that a) most of my most intimate moments with life (read: mind-blowing) have occurred while I was in the midst of nature; and b) the more you experience moments in which your senses are heightened organically or naturally, [and I’m finding for me specifically, while in communion with others] the more “art” [or insert anything else that we tend to revere in order to add parameters, or to literally frame these experiences] pales in comparison.

Thus, in San Pedro, I was less pressed with “capturing,” because somewhere in and around that moment I realized that there was more there than us just *looking* at the water while it ebbed and flowed with its brilliant colors and stutter-stop motions – seemingly indifferent to our presence. And my ability to “capture” it in its entirety was lacking anyway, as I'm sure my companions that day would attest.

And then there’s the recollection on the back end.

A moment can be viewed through so many different prisms, and you always end up shading the substance of the meaning you retrieve from it variably from each moment to the next. I have experienced things that seemed the dopest of dope, but upon recollection, its bold colors faded and meaning waned. I’ve experienced things that didn’t register much on my sensory radar at the time of occurrence, but upon recollection, usually shared recollection, it grew meaning. I would like to reconcile my recollection and memories with the ongoing nature of reality. For me, the answer is to humbly commit them to the communal memory that my friends and I have of that moment and leave it at that. It’s not the scene, picture, or actual piece of art -- it’s our experience in relation to the art or *thing* and how it functions in relation to us; how we affect it and how it affects the way we proceed and continue.

I think I’m done with taking pictures of moments.