The Liberator: Blog

Nijla Mu'min's "Deluge" / Magical Realism, post-BP oil spill New Orleans, and Black Mermaids

2012-05-21T05:03:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

Nijla Baseema Mu’min is a writer and filmmaker from the San Francisco Bay Area. A 2007 graduate of UC Berkeley, she is now pursuing a dual MFA degree in Film Directing and Writing at Calarts. I've been following Nijla’s work from quite some time, more specifically her recent work -- from her short film Two Bodies, which has screened at festivals across the country, including the 20th Annual Pan African Film Festival, the Fusion: LA LGBT People of Color Film Festival to her essay which is included in the The New York Times-featured book, Love InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women. Her newest film Deluge involves Drexciyan-like underwater worlds and archetypes. As Nijla describes:

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Deluge is a short film that explores African American’s relationships to water, informed by such traumas as The Middle Passage, the BP Oil spill, and Hurricane Katrina, through the lens of main character Tiana, and her introduction to an aquatic underworld. After witnessing the mass drowning of her friends and struggling with the decision not to jump in, 14-year old Tiana must decide if she will join the order of black mermaids that protect the oil-drenched waters of Lake Pontchartrain where her friends rest. This film is inspired by the 2010 mass drowning of six black teens in a Shreveport, Louisiana sinkhole. None of them could swim. The film blends coming of age drama, magical realism, and psychological suspense to explore traumatic memory in a post- BP oil spill New Orleans.
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A crowd-sourced fundraising effort currently underway ends Thursday, June 14. We reached out to Nijla to learn more about the inspiration behind Deluge.

LM: The premise of Deluge delicately integrates themes such as environmental racism, spiritual relationships with water, Yoruba mythology, and the vulgarities of slavery. When sitting down to write this film, what did your research process look like? And I know you traveled to New Orleans for location scouting. How did being in that space help you develop this story?

Since I was young, I’ve been fascinated with black history and people. My artistic practice is largely informed by continued research and exploration. I like to think this film is an extension of life passions that took root then. This film began as a poem I wrote in the wake of the BP Oil Spill. I was overcome with thoughts of water lineage and oil trauma, and what that meant for an order of black mermaids who I imagined as guardians of the ocean since the Middle Passage. Around this same time, I read M. Nourbese Philip’s book, Zong!, a poetic recapturing of the court decision regarding the Zong Slave ship where a captain decided to murder 150 Africans by drowning in order to collect insurance money. I also read Salt Water Slavery by Stephanie Smallwood, and was struck by a chapter detailing the many ways that captured Africans died on slave ships. There was a sense of agency in some of these deaths, be it throwing one’s self overboard, or the example of a man who purposely laid out on the top layer of a boat while it rained, and died there. And there were also murders- human beings used as bait for sharks and thrown into the water against their will, only to drown.

When I transitioned from the poem into the screenplay, the story was a complete underwater narrative, complete with black mermaids and ancestral sea cemeteries. As I began to think of the project as a potential thesis film, I knew I wouldn’t be able to capture the full extent of that world in the time and budget I had as a graduate student. I had to figure out how to marry the above-ground story with the aquatic presence of the original idea.

It may sound crazy, but the present structure for the film came to me in a dream. The dream revealed that there was a way to merge the story of the drowning and the black mermaids in a way that conveyed the depth and texture of both, and within a thesis film framework.

Filmmaker Haile Gerima always talks of one’s dreams being the language of cinema. In this case, it was. I woke up, went to my laptop, and wrote the treatment for what would become Deluge.

During my trip location scouting, I was further convinced that this film couldn’t come alive in any other location than Louisiana, and New Orleans specifically. This is a landmass that is so very dependent and linked to water, with areas below sea level. There’s water and moisture all around, the energy is wet, and I felt it all wash over me while there. The Gulf is also an important anchor for the mermaids in the film.

I also wanted to play with themes of oil and its presence in the lives of people- to fry food, to use in our hair, to fix cars, to wage wars. Oil takes on so many meanings and I wanted to explore subtle associations between oil, toxins, teen sexuality, and water. Water as a metaphor for youth and life and, what happens when relationships to water are compromised by oil, industrial residue, and pollution.

LM: This film was inspired by the mass drowning of six black teens in a Shreveport, Louisiana sinkhole. I vividly remember this story as it was linked to my fears of being unable to swim. I remember the story quickly disappearing from the public discourse. Can you talk a bit more why this story needs further exploration and deconstruction?

When I heard about the story of these teens, I kept thinking about what their day was like leading up to the drowning; what they ate for breakfast, what their parents told them that morning, what their conversations were on the way to the Red River. I wondered if they had crushes and if they’d spoken with them that day. I also thought about the surviving teen and how he’d navigate life after such trauma. What would be his relationship to water in the aftermath of this? How would it inform their life? These are all questions and thoughts that overwhelmed me. They wouldn’t let go of me. In that space, I began to build scenes, moments, and characters that would become part of the film.

I don’t consider myself to be the authority of black people’s relationships with water, or even the example of water literacy. I actually taught myself to swim as a kid and have encountered bouts of insecurities about my own competence as a swimmer. This film isn’t a PSA on learning to swim or even an advisory of what happens if you don’t. In so many ways, Deluge is my own personal investigation of water.

I believe the most powerful films start as personal dialogues between a filmmaker and their subject, and then expand into something larger and layered. That is my aim with Deluge.

There are no easy answers or solutions to statistics that black children are three times more likely to drown than white children. There have been, and there are systemic barriers to water access and training. There are toxins and pollutants in many natural bodies of water around urban neighborhoods and communities. There is fear of water, there are insecurities around our hair getting “messed up” after we swim. There is water that isn’t safe to drink or shower in. There was a city that went underwater before the government cared to respond.

Some pools were doused with bleach and acid when black people tried to swim in them. There are so many multi-layered conversations to be had around black Americans and water, and how we can start to collectively reclaim and embrace water. The Shreveport drowning initiated my own conversation with these issues, and I’m hoping that Deluge continues it.

LM: You wrote that the film blends elements from a poem you wrote about black mermaids born from the souls of Africans who jumped, or were thrown overboard slave ships during the Middle Passage. Can you share an excerpt of that poem with us? I am curious about this notion of the Black mermaid and how it reminds me of the story of the flying Igbo.

Yes, I’ve included two stanzas of the poem below. The full, signed, framed poem is available to contributors who donate $25 or more to our Indiegogo campaign.

We sing saline
prayers
with locs of sea weed
and kiss the bones of babies
once dropped
kiss the bones of black men
and women who jumped overboard,
screaming us into the waters-
sea creatures,
surviving unlike them

LM: I glanced at your tumblr, aptly titled “Water Notes” and noticed a few images -- particularly an animated gif of THEESatisfaction's video for "QueenS" tagged as "mermaids". What is a Black mermaid?

A large part of Deluge is the creation of the black mermaid ethos. I think there’s a common, accepted Western conception of mermaids that positions them as mostly sexual creatures that lure people, (mostly men) into questionable circumstances. In my imagining of the black mermaids, I referred to Yoruba mythology, which shifts that western idea of sea beings into a more holistic, universal existence. Black mermaids emerge here as descendants of enslaved Africans and specific types of fish- bettafish, neon tetra, just to name a few. They possess a command of their bodies and some of them are sensual, but not for the sole purpose of male consumption.

I began a surrealist text/companion piece that details the origins of the black mermaids and their present endangerment in the midst of the Oil spill. That text, in addition to the poem, and several drafts of the script, portray black mermaids as distinct characters with different personalities, lives, and conflicts. On my tumblr, I frequently tag images “black mermaids” that inform my idea of these characters. In that particular gif, I am excited and moved by a collective group of black women moving to their own beat but also preserving something together, in that case music. My mermaids preserve spirits and memory in the water, though they may swim in different directions.

LM: Your past work while non-traditional in theme, exist in a more realist genre. In Deluge you are pushing the boundaries of magical realism and Afrofuturism. Why must this story be told through this lens?

My films often address themes of duality in black women and girls, or a certain twoness of being in multiple worlds while in one body. I’m also interested in personal versus public perceptions of self. Whether it’s duality of identity, religion, culture, sexuality, or race, I find the textures of these struggles compelling in the film form.

I’m also interested in subverting people’s ideas of what a “political” film or medium is. While my films may be tagged political, they are actually very personal stories about people undergoing some type of conflict, and often universal in their themes.

Deluge, while venturing into a more magical realm, centers on a character who is also between two worlds- her New Orleans family, friends, and community pre-drowning, and one of water trauma and black mermaids post-drowning. She is a precocious, intelligent girl who comes of age during this experience.

LM: You will be working with Charles Burnett, the director of Killer of Sheep (1977) and To Sleep with Anger (1990). Why did you choose this director as your faculty adviser?

This semester, I took a class with Charles called Advanced Staging. Under his guidance, students stage scenes from their scripts or existing films in class. This was one of the most beneficial classes I’ve taken as a filmmaker and student. As reflected in his films, specifically Killer of Sheep and To Sleep With Anger, Charles is the “master” of the moving master shot. There is something innate and instinctual inside of him that makes it all seem so easy. In class, he offers insight into how the camera can move with characters, flowing in and out of space as fluid as the mood evoked in the scene itself. This type of instruction is invaluable and I’m grateful to have it as I conceive of the visual design for Deluge. This is a film about water, about fluidity, but also about the roaring tide of trauma, and above all else, this will be a film that moves. Burnett’s films get at the core of family, of loss, and of history in a way that makes me want to step into them and dance alongside them. His insight on our project is invaluable in more ways than one can imagine.

LM: One aspect of this film that immediately caught my attention was your collaboration with conceptual artist Kenyatta AC Hinkle. Why did you chose to work so closely with a conceptual artist?

Kenyatta is a visual artist and writer who also attends Calarts. Her work extends across mediums and borders into explorations of lineage, personal geography, the power of naming, and black hair. We’re honored to work with her. It was extremely important for me to capture the image of the black mermaid characters early on so we’d be able to communicate our vision to potential costumers, art department, and film personnel, as well as to brand ourselves with an image the represents this stage of the project. The mermaid logo for our campaign contains the image that Hinkle designed. That is the “Merma” character in the script, and that image will be part of the poster rewards that contributors receive.

LM: Creatives are constantly fundraising for their projects. What makes Deluge especially important to support? What sets this narrative apart from other narratives?

You know, I’m always careful about presenting my work as “the first film that...” or in a way that brings down others.

Ultimately, this is a story that won’t leave me alone. It’s a story and film that keeps me up way into the night obsessing and worrying about whether everything will come together in time to make it. It’s story that has enveloped my being and probably will until it’s picture-locked.

I hope that dedication, that passion, the dozens of script rewrites, and determination translates into the project that people are reading about and thinking about as they browse our Indiegogo campaign. I want people to want to become submerged in this narrative.

LM: With all the excitement around this film, what aspects of the film are your nervous about?

Filmmaking is the ultimate test of nervousness but that usually means you’re passionate and will put that nervousness to the test. At this stage, I really have to trust my nervousness as a sign that all the hard work we’ve put in thus far will result in a project that accomplishes what we set out to do. For the past six months, I’ve lived in this elevated state of emotion, frustration, and excitement. I don’t think it will soon end. The test is to preserve my mind and body as the countdown continues.

LM: As a filmmaker, whose work -- film, literature, music, etc. inspires your work?

Oh my, so many people.

Right now I’m thinking of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s work- Amores Perros and Biutiful. He has a compelling way of layering stories and emotion into a cohesive narrative and the impact is always so visceral and earned.

I’m also thinking a lot about Haile Gerima and my experience taking his Third World Cinema class at Howard University. I don’t think I’d be the storyteller I am now without his insight.

I’m also thinking about Martha Southgate’s most recent novel, The Taste of Salt. I finished it in one night and stayed up thinking about it for hours. It’s a cross-generational exploration of one black woman’s relationship with water and the ocean, reflected in her family’s alcoholism, and her career as a marine biologist. This book serves as one of the main reference texts for Deluge.

I could go on and on but I have to say that I’m really moved by people. The people moving through world daily, and trying to figure out which way to go. I make movies that reflect them. I make movies for them.

I Self Devine / The Upliftment Struggle {ep/mix}

2012-05-21T05:02:00.000-04:00

Check for: "Up Aboves", "Fetti On Max", "Street Lights", "I Don't Know", "Temptation Is Evident", "Moment In Time" f. Budah Tye, Halph Duzn, & M.anifest, and "Dreaming, Sleeping & Dying".

The Upliftment Struggle (download)

I Self Devine / Reports From the Field: In the Trenches {ep/mix}

2012-05-21T05:01:00.000-04:00

Check for: "Oblivious" f. Muja Messiah, "Twizzled" f. Soulution, "Pretty Sickness" f. Ak-Rite, "Nation Time", "Chips And Gravy", and "Urgency".

Reports From the Field: In the Trenches (download)

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

The fight

2012-05-14T12:30:00.001-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

“Let me tell you about love, that silly word you believe is about whether you like somebody or whether somebody likes you or whether you can put up with somebody in order to get something or someplace you want or you believe it has to do with how your body responds to another body like robins or bison or maybe you believe love is how forces or nature or luck is benign to you in particular not maiming or killing you but if so doing it for your own good. Love is none of that. There is nothing in nature like it...Love is divine only and difficult always. If you think it is easy you are a fool. If you think it is natural you are blind. It is a learned application without reason or motive except that it is God.”
-Rev. Senior Pulliam, in Toni Morrison’s Paradise

The stirring scent of the lemon verbena incense stick appears to defy physics as it wafts through the wooden door. It greets my nostrils and signals that you are home. I clumsily clasp the metal door knob, turn the key, and walk trepidatiously into the unlit apartment. My shoes seem to slide off my throbbing feet of their own volition. I fling them hastily into the open closet. The thick heels soar above the mounds of neatly folded clothes before striking the thin wall. The resulting tremors reverberate throughout the small living room, rattling the triple-pane windows, and shaking the old television’s glass screen. The throbbing in my ears is exacerbated by a sports announcer’s booming voice, which is excitedly previewing the night’s NCAA men’s basketball championship game. We don’t know yet know that the Duke Blue Devils will thrash the Butler Bulldogs, and cart home the coveted trophy. We don’t yet know that our life is vaporizing into a slew of loosely strung-together remember-whens and fading photographs packed into a weathered shoebox.

A bell rings in my subconscious. I visualize your imposing frame—the thing that drew my most primal self to you—sinking into the oversized sofa. I imagine you crouching, like a carnivorous beast in the Serengeti plains, waiting—patiently, hungrily—for the opportune moment to pounce on its prey. My now bare feet skate across the living room floor, and I sense your searing glare, silently daring me to throw the first punch. Adrenaline surges through my enlarged veins, increasing my pulse, and jolting my brain. Sweat beads dance across my forehead, and rise to the palms of my empty hands. I fumble through the darkness in search of the tall halogen lamp, and in prayer that its light will offer salvation. Suddenly, the room is illuminated. We take center stage in its harsh brightness. Our eyes meet. The fight begins.

Fuck rules. Fuck you. I flail my arms and you raise your voice. I hurl accusations and you throw insults. My untamed fierceness, the thing that drew your most evolved self to me—and subsequently challenged it to a duel—is raw and raging. Your face contorts. It’s evidence that I’ve hit my target. You recover quickly, and retaliate aggressively. You gain the advantage. I panic. But you’ve grossly underestimated how determined I am to emerge victorious. I inhale deeply, and launch my final frantic verbal attack. The words lurch out of my mouth like the poisoned arrow of a seasoned hunter. I stare, lips slightly apart, as they travel the short distance between us, piercing your flesh, and slicing open your heart. They are deadly. Blood drains from your already flushed face. I imagine it forming a rising pool around our feet, submerging us in its plasma and platelets, smothering us as it congeals. Heavy silence—the blade to the guillotine that cradles our heads—looms menacingly.

I want to tell you I don’t mean it, but even more so, I want to not mean it. I want to scream, as my tepid tears appear and slide down my cold cheeks, “I’m sorry!” But I fear that the crushing weight of that lie will be too much for my over-extended heart to bear. I want to stretch out my arms and fly backwards, into our undefiled memories, a series of firsts: the first time we spoke, the first time we touched. I want to linger in the forgotten images of your loveliness. I want to hover over the buried relics of your gentleness. I want to carve into your soul proof that my tenderness existed, once upon a time—how else will you remember it? I want a truce, at most. I want a brief reprieve from the encroaching numbness, at least. I want, with an asphyxiating desperation, to understand what propelled our otherworldly love into the frigid air of this chilling reality. I want to stop us from jumping over the jagged edge of this rocky canyon. But I don’t. I won’t.

I win the fight.

I lose everything.

An Encomium for Melvin Van Peebles' "Lilly Done the Zampoughi Everytime I Pulled Her Coattail"

2012-05-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

Vinyl Check '69 / An Encomium for Melvin Van Peebles' "Lilly Done the Zampoughi Everytime I Pulled Her Coattail"
by Nia I'man Smith

1
blue black woman
mouth a rounded story
when back is tight arched against wooden skyline
legs: spontaneous combustion of skin
singed muscle curved and lined
summoned under composed sheets of night
men call her name like it's their last memory of sound.

This is how I imagine you. Part Earl 'Snake Hips' swivel and satin. Part Sandra sequined and shakin'. The reasons why Nina and Screamin' Jay continued to cast ol' backwood swamp spells and women perfume all the quiet spaces of themselves-the backs of knees, behind earlobes, and the nape of one's neck with honey. The Zampoughi. As elusive as the true origins of your name, I have spent half a lifetime searching for you in crowded, damp red rooms. In between clunks of ice against plastic, the swallowing of fire, and the dizziness after, I have hoped that somehow, after years of patiently waiting and forever praying, one evening you would magically appear and answer the question that houses itself in the everyday of my thoughts: “How do you get somebody to love you?”

2
Cocksure in his stroke
He play God when he's straddled
Say: her dance was me

The bravado of a good fuck/ for a woman who loves to ball/ claim when he pull her coattail/ she come/ running/everytime/ oven or country style/ she likes it raunchy and wild/leave the money next to the Bible on the nightstand/ turn the lights off now/ he say: I make her sweat/ make her scratch and scream/ middle of the night/ 2 o'clock in the morning/ pouring down rain/got Lily dancing the Zampoughi only for me

Like the men before
He play God when he's straddled
Say: her dance was me

These are the men who will claim to have known you. In smoke-filled rooms of oak and whiskey, they will speak of you only in reference to themselves. They will talk of you in pieces:

“That girl always laughed when I...”
“Betchu' ain't never make her smile like I made her smile when I...”
“You know that gal loved it when I...”
They will talk of you as if laughter, smiling, and loving never graced your path until the night the two of you met. They will speak of you in the shards they collectively piece together to see the greatness of themselves. Time and time again, I've wanted to ask you the same question I've asked myself, “Why these men?”

You/me/we answer:

It's not
that I've loved them
more than I love myself
it's the burning desire
to be someone's
martyr.

3
I ain't
made to be owned.
I am no quiet space
for men to hold their thoughts.
this dance
bawdy juke'd laughter and moons shined
ain't for the claiming of
nobody’s dreams
but mine.

On the nights I wish to be enveloped by more than the weight of a pillow or have skin, rather than sheets, whisper against bare legs, I comfort myself by remembering the true nature of you. It is one that cuts through tobacco fields to drive men like Melvin into a crescendo of howls and pleads. It is one that openly scoffs at the idea of having a last name other than your own and prefacing your first with Mrs. It is the type of power ordinary women secretly ache for. The power that comes with being able to answer Pecola's question, but never feeling compelled to ask it.

*Italicized lines taken from the Melvin Van Peebles song, “Lilly Done the Zampoughi Everytime I Pulled Her Coattail” from the classic 1969 album, Brer Soul.

Thank you, Northstar

2012-05-08T05:00:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to our newest member for having enough faith in our vision to support it with her monthly donation. The Liberator Magazine is printed and distributed with the generous support of all its monthly donors, including our volunteer staff.

Groove De Lá {ep/mix}

2012-05-05T14:05:00.001-04:00

Info: "DJ, music researcher, and collector of vinyl, Ju Salty began her advances in sound at the end of 2006 and from then to now has spun alternative in the best houses of Sao Paulo. Black music of the world are her influences: From seeds collected from African musicality that spread to the rest of the world, from jazz to samba, funk to soul, Latin music to Candomblé, everything coalesces in the same pot in their sound..."

Groove De Lá (download)

01.Manu Dibango – New Bell (Camarões)
02.The S.A. Move – Skophom (Africa do Sul)
03.Albino – Jing Bong Wah (EUA)
04.Lafayette Afro Rock – The Gap (EUA e França)
05.Orlando Julius – Afro Instrumental (Nigéria)
06.Marijata - Bualc Through (Gana)
07.Fanga – Crache La Douleur (França)
08.Antibalas – Who Is This America Dem Speak Of Today? (EUA)
09.The Boogoos – Theme For Issac Kirya (Alemanha)
10.Mahotella Queens– Wozani Mahipi (Africa do Sul)
11.Ebo Taylor – Victory (Gana)
12.3rd Generation Band – Obiye Saa Wui (Togo)
13.The Daktaris – Musicawi Silt (EUA)
14.Rob – Read The Bible (Gana)
15.The Mebusas – Son Of Me Bull Dog (Nigéria)
16.Osibisa – Somaja (Inglaterra)
17.Tony Allen & Jimi Tenor – Against The Wall (Nigeria e Finlandia)
18.Mulatu Astatke & Heliocentrics – Cha Chá (Etiopia e Inglaterra)

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.

Thank you, Northstar

2012-04-30T02:00:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to our two newest members for having enough faith in our vision to support it with their monthly donations. The Liberator Magazine is printed and distributed with the generous support of all its monthly donors, including our volunteer staff.

NY / Lounge Around at Zion

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

The Fork {a poem}

2012-04-18T13:47:00.000-04:00

The fork.

Blindly leading a life opposite of mendicant ascetics. Pecuina forensic, time to wear his afterlife lenses. Sometimes he questions whether he should have questioned himself. But now he has to. Bacterial thoughts weakened his soul and now he has to. He has to return to that state, return to his place, return to the time where they were in awe at his halo. Distressing their broken arrows. Writing a band saying, O’lord Lessen his life span.

Two angels writing every action. One road leading up to a fork. The right way is filled with a companion, hardship, and potholes. The other path is filled with momentary satisfaction, emptiness and potgolds. He must make a decision before the gaslight, before temptation, tee bones him and the pavement turns into a crash site. These roads are not survived by nomads, because on the angels' notepad, accomplishments speak louder than efforts. Though intentions might be pure, intentions are only known between his creator and he.

At the heart of the fork he notices a park bench. He approaches my idle soul. He asks if he could have a seat. Then he begins to speak of those peaceful nights. Those same nights, where my troubles were merely the delaying of my ambitions. Where good thoughts weren't selective. Where he was there…filing in my shortcomings. Where prayer was the only outlet. He just wants to be at home again. And for the first time in a while, I began to start hearing him again. As the dim sunlight is being reflected behind the clouds, the smell of rain seeps the ground. My soul speaks. Quietly says,

I miss me.

» A liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature
by Mohamed Ibrahim

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

Stalley / Savage Journey to the American Dream {ep/mix}

2012-04-01T05:00:00.000-04:00

Savage Journey to the American Dream (download)

Info: "What role is Rick Ross playing in your life right now? ... "He’s like a big brother, a mentor, a friend. He’s just someone who believes in me like I believe in myself. And just to have him being the hottest artist in the game right now and having the best label in the game right now. For me to be the new guy, and the new artist that nobody really knows about — even Meek [Mill] and Wale had some sort of history where people knew who they were even before MMG. But me, I’m kinda out of nowhere like, “Who is this guy?” So for him to believe in me and see that is just a beautiful thing. He plays that role of just believing, and that’s all I ever needed.… It’s all about that opportunity, that’s like when you play ball. It’s like, ‘put me in the game coach, I’m ready to play.’ And if they see you, they know you on the team, they see you do the warm-ups, and they see that you got a little game, but they don’t know until you get out on the court. So now, March 30 is my time to get out on the court. And when I’m out there, people gonna see me shining. That’s all I need. I don’t need no handouts, I don’t need no help, just put me in front of the people and they’ll believe."" (source)

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."

Slavery By Another Name {film}

2012-04-01T03:00:00.000-04:00

Slavery By Another Name (stream)

Info: "Douglas A. Blackmon shares how the project Slavery by Another Name evolved.

Slavery by Another Name “resets” our national clock with a singular astonishing fact: Slavery in America didn’t end 150 years ago, with Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Based on Douglas A. Blackmon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book, the film illuminates how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged in the American South, persisting until the onset of World War II.

“It is rare to have the opportunity to bring to television a story that, outside of academic circles, is virtually unknown,” says tpt National Productions’ Catherine Allan, executive producer of the 90 minute documentary for PBS. “In telling the story of what happened to African Americans over the 80 year period of “neo-slavery”, we hope to add a significant new facet to America’s ongoing discussion about race.”

While to most Americans this is entirely new history, for journalist Blackmon, the film explores a very familiar—and personal—topic.

“It feels like I have been writing about race and America's tortured struggles with it for all of my life,” said Blackmon. “I grew up in a little town in the Mississippi Delta in the 1960s and 1970s, a place where the country's racial turmoil was playing out very vividly and locally.”

“The book in some respects began with an essay I wrote in the 6th grade about a farm labor strike on the outskirts of my town in the mid 1960s. I was intensely aware of what was happening, and the stakes involved, and began trying to understand how such a scrambled set of circumstances had come to pass. “

Blackmon’s lifelong quest for reasons behind America’s struggles led to his bestselling book. And as the book was translated into a documentary, Blackmon served as the film’s co-executive producer. “Making the film was a thrill,” said Blackmon. “In the book I tried so hard to treat the victims of enslavement as three-dimensional, real people, with complex, valuable lives that had been wrecked by these terrible injustices.”

“But there is only so much you can do with the printed word. Seeing those characters portrayed by actors and giving voice to their words from a century ago was really powerful.”

The film, shot on location in both Birmingham and Atlanta, is built on Blackmon’s extensive research, as well as interviews with scholars and experts about this historic period. It also incorporates interviews with people living today, including several African American “descendants” of victims of forced labor who discovered their connection to this history after reading Blackmon’s book.

“As I’ve traveled, discussing the book and meeting readers, a stream of African-Americans have related to me how the book made them reassess their own family histories,” said Blackmon. “So many people tell me they were uncertain about accounts passed down by forebears which seemed to suggest that families were still being held as neo-slaves in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Then they read the book and realized that in fact the old stories are very likely to be true–that thousands of people were living in a state of involuntary servitude well into the lives of millions of Americans who are still alive today.”

“Doug’s book really made this topic explode out into the open, so we could see how the subjugation of African-Americans was systematically accomplished, through the state governments and through the lack of federal involvement, after Reconstruction and up to the beginning of World War II,” said producer/director Samuel Pollard. “We’re in this wonderful unique opportunity with Slavery by Another Name to again go back and understand the African-American experience in the South from a perspective that hadn’t really been defined.”

In addition to descendants of forced laborers, Blackmon and the filmmakers also explored the “aftershocks” experienced by those whose family heritage features purveyors of the brutal practices. Cristina Comer, the great-great-granddaughter of Alabama governor B.B. Comer, learned that her family members were active participants in the brutal system. Comer described her reaction to this information, and her ongoing emotional struggle: “Everything that I looked at had a connection to the privilege that I had experienced, which came at the cost of many black people’s lives. And the sorrow and the deep grief that I felt over that– I can still feel today.”

The film was written by Sheila Curran Bernard, engaged from preproduction through editing to help transform the 400-page book into a powerful, 90-minute movie. ”The book’s overall argument and the depth and scope of its research, obviously, gave me a tremendous head start,” said Bernard. “You play to the strengths of the medium and trust that the film is part of an overall project, which in this case includes not only a best-selling book but also a range of newly-created, web-based resources.”

“In total, the documentary took three years from first optioning the book to broadcast on PBS,” said executive producer Catherine Allan. “It has been an enormous—and very worthwhile—experience.”" (source)

Thank you, Northstar

2012-03-20T03:00:00.000-04:00

Many thanks to our newest members for having enough faith in our vision to support it with a monthly donation. The Liberator Magazine is printed and distributed with the generous support of all its monthly donors, including our volunteer staff.

Big KRIT / 4eva N a Day {ep/mix}

2012-03-19T04:00:00.000-04:00

4eva N a Day (download)

Info: "Before we get into the album, tell us about your new mixtape. What were some of the concepts and ideas you had in mind prior to creating this mixtape?

My album was originally supposed to come out September 27 last year and now we’ve changed it to June. So in between then, I wanted to create a body of music. Hence, I didn’t want it to just be a gang of songs and that’s it, you know? I wanted it to be a conceptual mixtape of A day in the life of Big K.R.I.T. because there’s not a lot of footage of me out there, so I wanted people to get to know me.

A very personal project it seems.

I decided to put my whole life on wax for this mixtape and the story unfolds as you listen to each track. You’ll even notice the artwork ties in with this vision. There’s different standpoints that depict what one goes through in a day and the choices and decisions you make whether good or bad. The titles are traditionally in the hook, but these titles reflect more of the emotions and actions. Cohesively, from the songs, artwork, track listing, titles, it's all relative.

You said your put your “whole life on wax this for this mixtape,” are there certain songs we should look out for?

There were a couple, “Yesterday,” “Me and My Old School,” “1986” since that was my birth year, “Handwriting” and last but not least, “Down & Out.” These songs came all came from a special place and I’m hoping there are people that can relate to it so it helps them." (source)

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.

Outsider-Outsider Music: Willis Earl Beal and the Real Blues / "The faith is made devout by his life narrative"

2012-03-17T03:00:00.000-04:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

by Brian Kupillas

Willis Earl Beal was found lying on a sidewalk in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was not actually the singer/songwriter himself, but one of his now infamous fliers that held his self-portrait and a plea for “a nice, pretty girl” to call him. To have seen the flier, the lone figure dressed as if for a date he might have been stood up for, and to have read the logical argument for why he is “a good person” written along the bottom edge, one might have taken the time to call the number he listed beside his portrait and be entertained with a song—after all, Beal is also notoriously forthcoming with his phone number, stating on his fliers that he will sing you a song if you call, or draw you a picture if you write to him. Davy Rothbart, editor and co-creator of FOUND Magazine—a publication interested in bringing the discarded remnants of strangers’ strange lives into the public eye—found Willis Earl Beal, put his flier on the cover of FOUND’s #7 issue, and in doing so sparked an interest in the unheard-of musician. But before Rothbart discovered the artist, Beal had a long, fascinating history.

Predating his desire to be a poet or musician, Beal tried his hand at writing screenplays and even tried out an acting career under the pseudonym “Jack Fate” (referring to Bob Dylan’s character from the film “Masked and Anonymous”). He was even cast in a low-budget indie film which he told me during a phone interview was called “The Eloquence of Gabriel” and was a mock, snuff film. “I’ve always been a big film buff” he said “film is a great inspiration to my writing. Without the images you can’t come out with the words.” When preparing for a role, Beal would use his karaoke machine to record himself “babeling”. “I would just babel all day and all night onto a tape and write down the best of my babeling, memorize it as a monologue and use it to try out for plays in Chicago.” Willis told me however that “most of the actors and actresses [he] encountered were all too pretentious and took themselves all too seriously” and so he tried out a new form of expression. In Albuquerque, New Mexico where he lived on the streets, Beal tried song. He met up with musicians John Mulhouse and Emily Nelson to form a band that would play Beal’s original music, with the primary goal being to get it out into the world. The band was to be called “A Simple Twist of Fate” though Beal mentioned that he thought a funny name would be more suitable, something like “The Retail Dealers” or “Macho Men from the Flea Market”. Whatever the name, the music is what mattered, and by talking with John Mulhouse, it was clear that the music couldn’t have come about more organically. “Willis rarely told us what to do and he never would tell us anything in musical terms” he said, “It was never: ‘Play a ‘C’’ chord here and switch to 4/4.’ It was always like: ‘I want this to sound like sunshine on the grass’ or ‘Let’s play a funeral march.’” The naturalness of the finished product is very much a testament to what Mulhouse says are Beal’s influences; “He’s influenced more by attitude and approach than actual musical style, I think.” John Mulhouse’s hunch could very well be true. When listening to Willis Earl Beal’s material, one experiences an attitude more than a song. Unfortunately, “A Simple Twist of Fate” never found their way to an audience, because the day Beal and his girlfriend broke up, he was gone for Chicago and the band never had the chance to perform. It’s there in Chicago he began playing with the Ghostones and where his fliers became more well-known (probably due to the fact that Found Magazine had published their #7 issue). And there, on that flier, is where Willis Earl Beal became the story everyone wanted to hear.

Beal has been on the rise lately, and although he’s still quite unnoticed, he’s grown enormously popular from where he was on that sidewalk in Albuquerque. Just a few months ago, the man was working for $150 a week at a UPS store and living with his Grandmother in Southside Chicago. Now, Beal is signed to London based record label XL (other artists include The xx, Tyler, the Creator, M.I.A, Jack White and Radiohead), with his album Acousmatic Sorcery to be released April 2nd, and plans to tour Europe at the end of February. Now Beal is simply awaiting his second advance check so he can begin helping out his grandmother monetarily, and of course, find his own place to live. “It’s very surreal to have started alone” he said “I didn’t feel I had any talent…and now to be on this trajectory…”—he had no more words.

Willis Earl Beal’s back story certainly helps his songs work, though in the end, they still have the strength to stand on their own. That strength comes from Beal being true to himself. It’s this strength of the individual journey that calls to mind Gospel, secular Soul and Blues music at their most basic values: struggle and hope. The relationship between Beal and these sects of sound can be hard to hear at first because he brings his own personality through their channels, widening them, even distorting them a bit. But the discordant and muffled grumbling of the backing tracks on songs like “Take Me Away”, and the minimalism of his music on songs like “Evening’s Kiss” only serve as the atmospheric condition for his songs. It’s the singing which translates nearly everything Gospel, Soul and Blues are about. The base values of these genres in the modern era can feel lost on many younger listeners because they tend not to believe the struggle of most contemporary performers. Blues is almost always a few older men at a biker rally playing Blues Rock songs about things that don’t necessarily pertain to them. Gospel simply fell away, and it has not yet had a strong resurgence of interest in it, like Blues did in the 1960’s. The easiest religious music one can find today is Christian Rock which does not truly get across the emotion old time Gospel like Blind Willie Johnson could. The power is simply spoken and not felt. Soul was overtaken by Funk in the seventies as the most important form of Black music, and though it still exists today as R&B, it is not nearly as soulful as it once was when acts like Solomon Burke and Sam Cooke were performing. Perhaps why Beal is being categorized within these categories is due to the fact that he represents their core. “Growing up, I listened to a lot of New Gospel” he said, stating that Kirk Franklin and the Family was a favorite of his mothers, though he didn’t particularly like it. Instead, Beal says “I sought out Gospel Music in my own way. I found negro spirituals and chain gang songs are songs I related to.” This return to the roots is definitely sensed in his music. But Beal isn’t just another flat act clinging to an old form. He’s reintroducing these mediums to the public with a voice that they believe, accompanied by a style of music that only emboldens the faith. The faith is made devout by his life narrative.

Much like older performers like Blind Willie McTell or Robert Johnson, Beal has been shrouded in myth and legacy because his tale is so intriguing. Not to say that his story is untrue, but when told who he is, and where he’s come from, he registers in a part of the brain meant for long-ago and far away heroes of folk-lore. Blind Willie McTell is said to have known Georgia like the back of his hand, learned from his wandering the state with only a guitar, playing songs for those who would listen. Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads to be able to play guitar as well as he could. It’s with this sort of legend Beal comes to us. “Already my story has been embellished, and I didn’t do it” he claims. It is his story which really makes us want him. He shares this trait with the likes of more contemporary artists too, i.e., Tom Waits and Bob Dylan; two of Beal’s favorites. Waits has always felt like a vagabond who got off some boxcar and found out it was fifty years later and now he’s got to make himself at home with us. Dylan, on the other hand, was so many different things it’s hard to talk about him in such a general way. Nonetheless, he’s “otherworldly” as Beal would put it, and Beal has a hint of that aesthetic too. What truly unites the three is how well they connect that aesthetic to the contemporary audience and create a sense of nostalgia with new, innovative music. You never hear recordings from the 20’s and 30’s utilizing distorted, detuned guitars played like percussion with a man growling over it. But for some reason, when we hear it now, we understand how it associates with those time periods and files so easily within our mental catalog of music. So naturally, as listeners we canonize Beal a certain way, somewhere in the Freak Folk, Blues/Soul category. But Beal would himself deny most claims that he is a Blues singer, or a Soul singer. In fact he finds it “a little frustrating” when he is constantly compared to those styles of music. “It’s not necessarily bad, but I shy away from that a little bit because it’s a characterization because I’m black.” However, Beal does admit that “there’s definitely a connection. I am a blues singer” he said, “but not necessarily because of my voice. I’m a blues singer because I sing about what’s going on in my life on a very personal level. That’s what blues singers did.”

That much is true. Willis Earl Beal makes what many call “outsider” music. That is, music that comes from the fringe, music that does not follow trends and has no stake in being widely accepted or popular. One common thread between these “outsider” musicians is their inherent need to express themselves. Beal may sound like a man worked to the bone in some small South Eastern town, but his idiosyncrasies are what makes him stand out. He’s managed to connect with our cultural obsession for what is old and his generation’s infatuation with music that praises personality over polished presentation (which is what makes them outsiders in the first place). And that’s really what the blues are—unpolished personality. Old bluesmen like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Abner Jay, Mississippi John Hurt, and Leadbelly can all be believed by their audience because their suffering can be felt through their music. What outsider artists like Daniel Johnston, Jandek, Sharkula and now Willis Earl Beal bring to the public is a personality trying to shine through to the world, through the barriers of their own lives, just like the old blues singers used to do. That’s what soul is, rising up over oppression, and it certainly is what Gospel’s all about; getting to the glory beyond this mortal toil. When a man like Daniel Johnston sings “True Love Will Find You In The End”, one wants to believe him, partly because the sentiment is beautiful, and partly because his story—one of lost love, and never ending optimism even through mental disturbance—also resides in a sort of folk-lore where the romanticized values of an older time still reign supreme. Just as when Leadbelly sings “Leaving Blues” you somehow are made to understand his pain and confusion for having to leave home because the woman he’s been living with for the past twenty years doesn’t love him anymore. The same goes when Willis Earl Beal sings “Take Me Away” with lyrics like “My head is heavy but my body is light / Ain’t got enough strength much left to fight / Right now, if you believe.” The outsider has been stripped down and has nothing to offer the world but their most bare, naked self, all flawed and beaten and yet unashamed. Blues music is very similar, and has always been a desperate man’s expression, and outsiders are known to be desperate. One only needs to read a Beal flier to know that. It’s the desperation that makes these artists authentic and real to us as listeners. It is more than just a few songs. It is a story trying to be told.

Miriam Makeba: Ode to Mama Africa in the hour of the wolf {film}

2012-03-16T04:30:00.000-04:00

Info: "Miriam Makeba was born in a South African township, broke through as a jazz singer and grew under the wing of Harry Belafonte into a musical and political legend. Makeba was an impressive sight and took public never mince words: "I do not talk politics, I say the truth." In 1963 she spoke to the United Nations and became a figurehead of the anti-apartheid struggle in her country. It earned her the nickname Mama Africa and led to thirty years in exile. Makeba married five times, lost her only daughter and lived in the U.S., Guinea and Belgium. She was in high cultural and political circles and was itself surrounded by people like Ella Fitzgerald, Marlon Brando and John F Kennedy. Her most famous hit Pata wasPata. The light made her sad that the very apolitical dance song was so successful, but they are not complaining about "the audience chooses what it wants." In 1990 Nelson Mandela asked her personally 'come home' and return to South Africa. She died in 2008 of a heart attack. This richly documented ode celebrates her unforgettable voice, her charisma and her highly paid idealism."

via Africa Is A Country

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."

"Eyes On The Rainbow" / The Assata Shakur Documentary {film}

2012-03-16T04:00:00.000-04:00

Info: "Eyes on the Rainbow" deals with the life of Assata Shakur, the Black Panther and Black Liberation Army leader who escaped from prison and was given political asylum in Cuba, where she has lived for close to 15 years. In it we visit with Assata in Havana and she tells us about her history and her life in Cuba. This film is also about Assata's AfroCuban context, including the Yoruba Orisha Oya, goddess of the ancestors, of war, of the cemetery and of the rainbow. Gloria Rolando on "Eyes of the Rainbow": "In the struggle of the African American people, many women's voices in the past and the present have always called for social justice, women who throughout the years have shown integrity and firmness in their principles. For this reason, "The Eyes of the Rainbow" is dedicated to all women who struggle for a better world. One of those voices that already forms a part of the history of the African American people is that of Assata Shakur. In the documentary "The Eyes of the Rainbow," she recounts aspects of her path as relentless warrior. We are able to create a meeting with Assata Shakur through the symbols of AfroCuban culture, which offer us beautiful songs evoking the ancestors. Representations of the Yoruba warrior orishas such as Oya and Ochosi support the discourse of this story, which also has its moments of poetry and tenderness as in the dance of Oshun, through which is illustrated Assata's decision to become mother while still in prison. The blues interpreted by Junius Williams and his "Magic Harp," the songs of Sweet Honey in the Rocks, and the Cuban group "Vocal Baobab" give a special stamp to this valiant testimony which defines the spirit of struggle in the African American woman."

Justice vs. Power / Noam Chomsky vs. Michel Foucault

2012-03-16T03:30:00.000-04:00

Info: "In 1971, American linguist/social activist Noam Chomsky squared off against French philosopher Michel Foucault on Dutch television ... the program was entitled 'Human Nature: Justice Vs. Power' and offered sharp contrasts between the more traditional view of 'human nature' and what would become a postmodernist perspective ... Chomsky, following a rationalist lineage going back to at least Plato, believes that there is a foundational 'nature' and that its positive aspects (love, creativity, recognizing and embracing justice) must be realized, while Foucault remains skeptical of any such notion... for him, the issue is not so much whether 'justice' or 'human nature' 'exists,' but how they have historically (and currently) function in society ... in regard to justice, he says (this is not included in the clips): "... the idea of justice in itself is an idea which in effect has been invented and put to work in different types of societies as an instrument of a certain political and economic power or as a weapon against that power..." The point of any political struggle, for Foucault, is to alter the 'power relations' in which we all find ourselves ..."

Everything is a Remix Part 4 / Intellectual Property: "System Failure"

2012-03-14T04:30:00.000-04:00

Everything is a Remix is a great 4-part series produced by Kirby Ferguson, a New York-based filmmaker, about the nature of creativity. This is the final installment.

Part 4 / System Failure: "Our system of law doesn't acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity. Instead, ideas are regarded as property, as unique and original lots with distinct boundaries. But ideas aren't so tidy. They're layered, they’re interwoven, they're tangled. And when the system conflicts with the reality... the system starts to fail."

A Life of Reaction

2012-03-01T04:30:00.001-05:00

{liberatormagazine.com exclusive feature}

by Miciah Bennett
{image via Flickr}

"A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction."
-Rita Mae Brown

It’s hard trying to create new habits. It’s February and a lot of people are headed down the road of giving up on their 2012 goals.

I’m struggling with mine.

It’s not because we don’t want to achieve, it’s because we are not used to doing the work it requires to achieve the goals. Setting a goal is like saying you want to lose three dress sizes -- you are going to need a plan, consistent effort and time.

Patience is what kills us.

We are unconsciously a society that wants instant-gratification. We want out goals to happen at the end of the week and it’s not always going to happen like that.

We can’t react to an opportunity from another if we haven’t already been acting on our own accord. There might not always be someone around to motivate us or cheer us on; someone to give us the $____ we need to do this or the inspiration to do that. We have to motivate ourselves. Archers don’t wait for someone to tell them to shoot the arrow at the target. They choose when to let the arrow go; they keep releasing until they run out of arrows, and when they've used all of their arrows they pull them out of the target and shoot again.

A life of reaction is being a slave to outside forces, action is always of purest intent.

KSD's Chicken & Waffles

2012-02-29T04:30:00.000-05:00

Info: "In just a short amount of time upon arriving to Los Angeles (January 16, 2005) Kamal Symonette-Dixon (Actor/Writer) was able to create a buzz in the Hollywood comedy scene. He created a well received live sketch comedy show entitled KSD's Chicken & Waffles that was featured at the acclaimed Friars of Beverly Hills and that had a packed debut and substantial size crowds in the subsequent shows and was featured at LA's BBKings as well. KSD's Chicken & Waffles presented a troupe of gifted LA actors hand-picked by Kamal who performed alongside Kamal on stage. Kamal acted, wrote, and directed all of the sketches for the troupe. And within just a year of Chicken & Waffles debut, a television pilot was filmed for KSD's Chicken & Waffles at CBS Studios (featuring a live studio audience) in LA during Spring 2006 by the illustrious Red Line Films, a film company who has won over 20 Emmys. This pilot was produced by two companies: Red Line Films and Dialektic Productions. Dialektic Productions is Kamal's very own Film/TV production company. Although Red Line filmed and directed the pilot, Kamal co-directed the pilot and was hands on with the details. The CBS taping was an instant success, and at one time the notable ICM Agency represented Kamal's pilot; the pilot for "KSD's Chicken & Waffles" has since been pitched to television networks and Kamal has written an entire seasons worth of sketches for "KSD's Chicken & Waffles". Red Line Films completed edits of this final version of the pilot in the year 2007 (Red Line Films edited the entire pilot and created two brief breaks within the pilot). The pilot for "KSD's Chicken & Waffles" was filmed at CBS Studio Center- Stage 20 located at 4024 Radford Ave Studio City, CA 91604-2190 from June 7th-June 9th in the year 2006."