Arts Today Ezine vol 2.8 by Arts Today Ezine

Vol 2.8 October 13, 2015

IN CONCERT... STEPHANIE SPRUILL Solo CD Releasepg #28

View this and past issues from our website.

JUVENILE RIGHTS DR. T. MCCARTHY pg. #18

ROBURRAGE PRODUCTIONS pg. #34

HEALTH TIP FITNESS BOSS pg.#114

IN THIS

ISSUE:

IN THE NEWS NABJ

6 OP / ED TBA

22 STOP RUNNING FROM KING PIERRE BLAINE

FEATURED ARTIST RON YOUNG

! ! !

110

76 NOTHING WASTED ADELIA PARKER

CHOP THE WORLD

My Grandma DR.Nina, JERRYSmita, WARD and Radha boiled th

in a pan on top of their stoves before consuming it, to kill

bacteria. They would let it cool, collect the fatty cream, t pg. 2

LIVE / WORK / PLAY NATE JOHNSON

CREATIVE CATALYST JANET RIEHL

GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY BERNIE HAYES

FEATURED POET JASON VASSER

“. . . for u, the sky’s the “unlimit”...” Baba Sherman Fowler,

Griot and Poet

Established 2014 Volume 2.8 St. Louis, MO www.the-arts-today.com/ Layout/Design www.bdesignme.com

NOTE:

As the publishers of The Arts Today Ezine we take care in the production of each issue. We are however, not liable for any editorial error, omission, mistake or typographical error. The views expressed are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of their respective companies or the publisher.

This Ezine and the content published within are subject to copyright held by the publisher, with individual articles remaining property of the named contributor. Express written permission of the publisher and contributors must be acquired for reproduction.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

In The News

Statement From NABJ on Washington Post’s Wesley Lowery Trespassing Charge While Covering Ferguson Last Year

The National Association of Black Journalists expresses concern with the decision by prosecutors in St. Louis County, Mo. to charge Wesley Lowery of The Washington Post with trespassing and interfering with a police officer. The charges stem from an incident that took place as Lowery, 25, was in Ferguson, Mo. in 2014 to report on the shooting death of Michael Brown, a black teen, by a white police officer. “Reporters have every right to do their jobs, pursue the truth and publish it,” NABJ President Sarah Glover said. The association is troubled by the action taken by prosecutors and believe it to be a direct assault on the free exercise of the First Amendment, which ensures journalists can practice their craft. Journalists understand citizens, including journalists, must respect the rule of law, but as the Supreme Court of the United States noted in its 1972 decision in Branzburg v. Hayes,”... without some protection for seeking out the news, freedom of the press could be eviscerated.” The organization believes Lowery acted reasonably in pursuit of news and information needed by the public in the aftermath of the shooting death of Brown and in light of ensuing unrest in Ferguson. The initial decision to release Lowery without filing charges also suggests that authorities themselves believed that his initial arrest could have been an abuse of power and discretion. The organization encourages local officials to drop the charges filed against Lowery so journalists can operate without fear that doing their jobs will lead to them being jailed. Washington Post executive editor Martin Baron called the charges “outrageous.” Lowery is a former NABJ board member. An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization for journalists of color in the nation, and provides career development as well as educational and other support to its members worldwide.

pg.

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WHAT DID YOU MAKE TODAY? SEWANGEE...........................pg. 118 FOOD: FOR TWO LENA O.A. JACKSON............pg. 122 READING KEVIN POWELL DR. JERRY WARD.................pg. 128 OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLACK ACTRESSES MALAIKA HORNE..................pg. 132

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

OP / ED SECTION

ArtsTODAY NEWSZINE

pg.

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Matthew 25:34-40 NIV

We seek to impact the world with the love of Christ one life at a time! Hopelessness and desperation are on the rise in a world where the greatest segment of the population possesses the least amount of resources. We need your help! Please help us fight this epidemic by sending your tax deductible donations/contributions to: For His Glory Ministries of St. Louis P.O. Box 1942 Maryland Heights, MO. 63043 http://calvarychapelslc.com/homeless-ministry/ For other ways in which you can help please contact Pamela Ford at pamelaford98@gmail.com or 314-216-0744. Copyright © 2015 - All rights reserved.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

E T

N E

L A T i t

l u

Are you a multi-talented creative? Any combination of artist-writer-musicianperformer? This conversation between “Swamped” and the Creative Catalyst may provide some welcome guidance.

It’s only the first week of the school year, and I’m feeling swamped already! Is dancing and leading workshops in addition to teaching a dodge from my main work as a poet? Is it a secret wish for failure? --Swamped in Savannah Dear Creative Catalyst:

Dear Swamped: That depends on your motivation and how you manage time and energy. Does fear not being enough lead you toward distraction? More practically, are you over-booked? Swamped: I think I’m in search of something, but I don’t know what. Creative Catalyst: Wholeness, as I see it. But there is only so much of you to go around. Your quest leads to fragmentation rather than wholeness. Swamped: I want to feel that expressing myself as a poet is enough. I want to feel worthy without having to add another

? D

ask the

layer—say, becoming a nature mystic before I can be a worthy poet.

healthy speak d

Creative Catalyst: It’s a bitch to be an artist in our linear world! Be careful not to internalize judgments from family and friends. Sure, it’s okay to be the poet you are without another layer. You don’t have to prove yourself to feel worthy.

Creativ

Layering springs from a creative impulse and is a quest for richness. Simpler is easier. But now all the richness, wholeness, and layering is a part of you and your poetry. Do not renounce an iota of the richness yet continue to focus. Do what you can without going crazy.

Creativ know m Perhap

Swamped: How can I know if I’m sidestepping commitment? Creative Catalyst: Ask yourself if some fear leads toward your seeking distraction. Swamped: If were truly committed to my writing, wouldn’t I do something like go on a month-long writer’s retreat and dive deep into myself? Creative Catalyst: Not necessarily. You don’t have to prove yourself by undertaking extraordinary steps. Staying home and doing your work is enough. However, I love the self-guided writing retreat idea! You could even dance during your retreat! Does dancing, your secondary interest, feed your primary writing interest? If so, you’re on a path that will serve your work. Swamped: Oh, yes. For me, the rhythms and music of dance embody the rhythms and musicality of language. I know that dance helps reduce my stress. It makes me feel alive and pg.

Swamp when it

Swamp coming

Creativ perfect

Art

cre

y. Plus, it’s fun to be in community with women. Even when we different languages, dance unites us.

ve Catalyst: It’s rejuvenating— your personal Fountain of Youth.

ive

CATALYST

ped: How can I tell when studying with a teacher will help me, and t’s hiding from what I know? This is so not people-speak :)

ve Catalyst: Take stock of what you know now. Do you need to more in order to go further? Claim your authority, and give it a go. ps later you’ll benefit from taking another class.

ped: My new resolution is to focus on my poetry collection in the g months Instead of spinning off in so many different directions.

ve Catalyst: Focusing your prodigious talent and energies makes t sense. Go easy on yourself, and let your work flow.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

LIVE WORK PLAY

Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Nate K. Johnson ABR,CRS,GRI Broker/Owner Real Estate Solutions nate@livingstl.com www.livingstl.com

I hope that you are doing well. Skipping the letter this month was certainly tempting for me, but I must admit that it wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t point out a few things that are going on in St. Louis for the rest of the month. I couldn’t have said it any better than L.M. Montgomery when her character Anne of Green Gables said “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” I hope that you will join me in enjoying the rest of this splendid month!

pg.

Local Events OCTOBER

Tonight, you can head over to the Urban Chestnut Brewing Company in Midtown to enjoy local brews and a indie handmade night market at Craftoberfest ! You can enjoy live music, over 35 local craft vendors and sample local cuisine at this great event.

OCTOBER

15 thru

OCTOBER

Tomorrow, aka Friday, the Contemporary Arts Museum of St Louis is host to it’s second year of Art 314. This silent auction features extraordinary work by more than 40 diverse and talented St. Louis artists at a range of price points. The evening continues with a DJ, open bar, and dance party. On Friday, the Magic House opens its doors for a special night of hands-on exhibits at the Emerson Free Family Night. Also, on Friday, Toro Y Moi will be bringing his R&B grooves to The Ready Room in The Grove. Of course, you might want to head over to the Pulitzer Arts Foundation for the Arts to check out the opening of Kota: Digital Excavations of African Art. On Saturday, the Fashion Week Boutique Hop helps to kick off St. Louis Fashion Week with a guided visit to the chicest boutiques in the city from 10am-4pm. Boutiques on the chauffeured tour will offer special discounts, cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres in honor of the festive week. Also on Saturday, you can check out Brew in the Lou, where you can enjoy an eating and drinking good time at Concordia Seminary in Clayton with live entertainment! Proceeds will benefit the 8,300 students served by the Lutheran Elementary School Association. If you are looking for more beer on Saturday, you can join me at Schlafly Bottleworks for the Schlafly Great Pumpkin Festival! Think county fair meets pig roast meets a trip to the pumpkin patch as they kick off the Fall Season and return of our beloved Special Release Pumpkin Ale with a host of festivities including live music, family-friendly activities, local vendors, great food, and some unique harvest-time beers and ciders. Don’t forget to swing by the St. Louis Science Center for Rock, Fossil, Quake which is a full day hands on dinosaur event, complete with scientists! Also on Saturday, you can check out the Fabulous Motown Review with Velvet and Satin at the Casa Loma Ballroom! On Sunday, celebrate autumn at Laumeier Sculpture Park with fall foods and beverages, a farmers market, locally made arts and crafts, and live music at their annual Harvest Festival! You might also want to check out the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House as it reopens all month long for the Owls and Orchids Animal Encounter ! This is your chance to get to know our nocturnal friends and get to see hundreds of colorful butterflies all in one venue.

www.the-arts-today.com

Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

LIVE WORK PLAY

OCTOBER

Tuesday markes the return of The STL Landmarks Series as it returns to the beautiful Central Library in the heart of St. Louis. This concert features a program of music for a woodwind quintet. If you are looking for something to do on Wednesday, you might want to head down to the newly renovated Pulitzer Arts Foundation to experience the convergence of music art and architecture at their Contemporary Concert Series with contemporary chamber music performed by the musicians of the St. Louis Symphony.

On Thursday, join me for a great night of music as Trailnet presents their annual Active Living Awards. This benefit concert takes place this year at the Sheldon Concert Hall with Martin Sexton ! The 6th Annual Fall into Art festival falls into our lap on Friday in Webster Groves. You’ll fall into wine, food, live music and a unique art show and sale featuring twelve Missouri artists. You might also want to check out Kevin Eubanks, and his great jazz guitar at Jazz at the Bistro! thru

On Saturday, you might want to join the Variety Children’s Theatre along with me and my babies at the Touhill Performing Arts Center to see a performance of Disney’s Mary Poppins! Also on Saturday, Mosby Building Arts and Alive Magazine presents STL Living: A Modern Home Tour and Tasting, which will be a journey through the St. Louis area to view five of our city’s most beautiful and unique living spaces. On Sunday, bring the kiddos to the Hoot & Howl at Powell at thePowell Symphony Hall in Grand Center where you will celebrate Halloween with a family friendly concert. You might also want to check out The Cherokee Urban Market for a variety of vendors offering arts, clothing, handmade jewelry and crafts, & more. There will also be carnival games, live music and an open bar all at 2720 Cherokee Performing Arts Center.

OCTOBER

3 pg.

OCTOBER

thru

On Friday, you might want to check out The Missouri Ballet Theatre as they perform Dracula at the Edison Theatre at Washington University. On Halloween, you can take your friends and family for a treat and a lot of tricks at Ballpark Village. or you can have a terrorfilled night at the Johnnie Brock’s Dungeon Halloween Bash where you can find adults only entertainment, an unbelievable all-inclusive drink package from top bars and clubs in the city and of course live music by Dr. Zhivegas. The Central West End is also host to an adults-only Halloween bash and costume contest that is legendary for its elaborate, complex and outrageous costumes, and this year they expect it to be better than ever with cash prizes for the winners!

Let’s make the most of the rest of the month! Don’t hesitate to let me know if there is anything that I can do for you.

~ All the best, Nate

OCTOBER

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

JUVENILE RIGHTS

Basics of Procedural Due Process for Children and Youth

Juvenile Rights: Basics of Procedural Due Process for Children and Youth Dr. Tracey McCarthy, Psy.D., DCFC, J.D., M.A. Psychologist/Attorney/Educator Webster University - Legal Studies Department Benchmark Organizational Learning and Development, LLC www.drtraceymccarthy@live.com

While Missouri children do not enjoy the right to a trial by a jury of peers if accused of committing a crime, they are entitled to many rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution and Missouri law. These rights involve every stage of the legal process, from apprehension to questioning, detention, adjudication, release, confinement, and treatment. Uppermost among children’s rights at apprehension and questioning is the right to be “Mirandized.” This means they are to be afforded what is known as a Miranda Warning when taken into custody by a juvenile officer or law enforcement, when they are suspected of violating the juvenile code or general state law. Being Mirandized indicates that prior to questioning a child shall be told that he or she has a right to remain silent. This means the child does not have to give a statement to juvenile officers or law enforcement during questioning. The child must also be advised that if the child makes any statement, whatsoever, such may be used against the child in court. The child must be informed that he or she has a right to have the mother, father, guardian, or custodian present during any questioning. The child has a right to consult with an attorney prior to any questioning and must be advised such. If any child cannot afford to pay for an attorney, one will be appointed for the child and paid for by the government. Law enforcement and juvenile officers are required to cease any questioning of a child suspected of committing a crime or of violating the juvenile code if the child indicates in any manner, during any stage of questioning, that the child does not want to be questioned any further. If a child is taken into custody by law enforcement, the child shall be taken directly before the local juvenile court or to the juvenile officer. Most importantly, the exact current age of the child, and the exact age of the child at the time of the alleged wrongdoing, must be determined. This determination is crucial. Although the age of majority in the state of Missouri is eighteen, juvenile laws related to crime commission in Missouri apply to all children under the age of seventeen at the time of the alleged conduct. Children who are suspected of violating the law after the age of seventeen are treated as adults in terms of criminal prosecution and incarceration. If a child is being detained in a detention facility, the juvenile court shall investigate the reasons for the child’s detention. After investigation, the court may order the child to be released or the court may order that the child be detained until a detention hearing is held. A judge makes this determination based upon a finding of what is known as “probable cause.” What this simply means is that sufficient information has been presented to the court by the state to show that the child likely committed the acts the child is accused of committing and that the child falls under the jurisdiction of the particular juvenile court.

pg.

Generally, a child shall not be detained for more than twenty-four hours, unless the court has ordered a detention hearing. If, however, such a hearing has not been conducted within three business days, the child must be released from detention. The exception would be if the court has “good cause” for ordering that the hearing be continued. When a detention hearing is scheduled, information regarding the date, time, place, and right to counsel must be provided to the child and his or her custodian. This can be done in person, via the phone, or other expedient means. Detention determinations are generally informed by the child’s prior record. The court will, therefore, consider whether the child has a history of intentionally failing to appear at juvenile court proceedings. The court will also consider whether the child has a record of violent behavior while in custody or in the community that has involved physical injury to self or others. A child’s history of leaving a court-ordered placement or secure detention, without permission, will also be considered by the court in determining the necessity of continued detention. There are several major legal cases involving juveniles of which children, parents, guardians, custodians, social workers, teachers, and law enforcement should be aware. Several of these cases, which constitute enforceable law, are an outgrowth of the Civil Right Movement of the 1960s. One of the most important U.S. Supreme Court cases involving juvenile law is the In re Gault case. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that when a child is accused of a crime, the child has many of the same due process rights as an adult accused of a crime. These rights include the following: 1. Right to a notice of the charges against the child; 2. Right to counsel in delinquency proceedings; 3. Right to confront and cross exam witnesses against the child; 4. Privilege against self-incrimination or testifying against oneself; 5. Right to a transcript of the court proceedings; and 6. Right to appeal a juvenile court’s decisions. Another important juvenile case is that of In re Winship. The Supreme Court in Winship determined that if a child is charged with conduct that would be considered a crime if committed by an adult, each and every element of the alleged crime must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, versus a mere preponderance of the evidence. With over 70 million Americans classified as children under the age of 18, the rights of such individuals are clearly important to know. According to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), although juvenile arrest rates are down, 1,319,700 children (under 18) in the U.S. were arrested for suspected crime commission between 2012 and 2013.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

JUVENILE RIGHTS cont.

These crimes ranged from the serious (such as murder) to the less serious (such as curfew and loitering violations). Children involved in allegations of crime span every socioeconomic class and every social demographic. It is, therefore, important that whole communities, including the actual children, be aware of the rights of the children within the community. It is equally important that these rights be pervasively enforced and vigilantly safeguarded by all. Sources: http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/population/overview.html http://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/qa05101.asp?qaDate=2012 Revised Statutes of Missouri (RSMO) 210 (Child Protection and Reformation) In re Gault, 387 U.S. 1 (1967) In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358 (1970)

This information is for general educational purposes only. It should not be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create an attorney-client relationship between any reader or recipient and the author. If a child or family requires legal assistance involving a child law/juvenile law matter, a private attorney should be consulted. A list of licensed attorneys can generally be obtained from the Missouri Bar, the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.

pg.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

LET’S STOP RUNNING AWAY FROM MARTIN Excerpt From Forthcoming book Movement: Race, Power & Culture in America By Pierre Blaine In a Letter from a Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King laid out the blueprint for challenging the status quo. Our young people must learn that direction action is a tool to get you to the negotiation table. Dr. King responded to the clergy why he was in Birmingham: You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of Direct Action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. My citing the creation of tension as part of the work of the nonviolent resister may sound rather shocking. But I must confess that I am not afraid of the word “tension.” I have earnestly opposed violent tension, but there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was necessary to create a tension in the mind so that individuals could rise from the bondage of myths and half truths to the unfettered realm of creative analysis and objective appraisal, so must we see the need for nonviolent gadflies to create the kind of tension in society that will help men rise from the dark depths of prejudice and racism to the majestic heights of understanding and brotherhood. The purpose of our direct action program is to create a situation so crisis packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation. I therefore concur with you in your call for negotiation. Too long has our beloved Southland been bogged down in a tragic effort to live in monologue rather than dialogue. One of the basic points in your statement is that the action that I and my associates have taken in Birmingham is untimely. Some have asked: “Why didn’t you give the new city administration time to act?” The only answer that I can give to this query is that the new Birmingham administration must be prodded about as much as the outgoing one, before it will act. We are sadly mistaken if we feel that the election of Albert Boutwell as mayor will bring the millennium to Birmingham. While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Black person with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.” In your statement you assert that our actions, even though peaceful, must be condemned because they precipitate violence. But is this a logical assertion? Isn’t this like condemning a robbed man because his possession of money precipitated the evil act of robbery? Isn’t this like condemning Socrates because his unswerving commitment to truth and his philosophical inquiries precipitated the act by the misguided populace in which they made him drink hemlock? Isn’t this like condemning Jesus because his unique God pg.

consciousness and never ceasing devotion to God’s will precipitated the evil act of crucifi must come to see that, as the federal c affirmed, it is wrong to urge an indiv constitutional rights because the ques robbed and punish the robber. I had a myth concerning time in relation to t from a white brother in Texas. He wr receive equal rights eventually, but it has taken Christianity almost two th of Christ take time to come to earth.” time, from the strangely irrational no will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, or constructively. More and more I fe effectively than have the people of goo merely for the hateful words and acti good people…

The echo of Rodney King pierces our whole country mourns the killing of O and abhorrent. The protestors all acro threatened to second guess protecting policemen to do their jobs. However, dismay of seeing continuous overkill o is what and who we are as Americans force against the citizenry. But in no w

fixion? We courts have consistently vidual to cease his efforts to gain his basic st may precipitate violence. Society must protect the also hoped that the white moderate would reject the the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter rites: “All Christians know that the colored people will t is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It housand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings ” Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of otion that there is something in the very flow of time that time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively eel that the people of ill will have used time much more od will. We will have to repent in this generation not ions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the

collective hearing – ‘Can we all just get along?’ The Officers Lui and Ramos. Their killing was senseless oss this country are not telling police officers who are g themselves in dangerous situations. In fact, we want , it is bewildering to see the police response to the public’s of unarmed citizens by policemen. In a republic which s it is our job to challenge the unauthorized use of police way can you equate the legitimate protest of people all

over the United States challenging police shootings and killings of unarmed citizens with a crazed mentally ill man who killed the police officers in Brooklyn, New York. You will recall that there was a tape in the “Rodney King” beating by police officers in which five police officers beat King inflaming riots in Los Angeles because the tape did not show that he was any threat to police and three officers were acquitted of all charges with that trial ruling igniting the riots that followed. The acquittals led to the Justice Department obtaining grand jury indictments of the officers for violating King’s civil rights with two officers being found guilty and imprisoned and two officers receiving acquittals in 1993. There are many who say that but for the tape that was shown on Rodney King it would have just been business as usual with no indictments or public knowledge of what happened in the case. Clearly, going forward there must be more accountability of how police do their jobs but police officers are already trained and know how to deescalate various situations in the course of their work. In fact, they do it every day. When the Idaho mother went to the Walmart and her two year old son reached into her purse and accidently pulled out a gun and killed his mother, the police who went to that scene did not go in with guns a blazing and shoot the two year old. No one called the police and complained that a two year old was pointing a gun at people and oh, incidentally just shot and killed someone. The news headlines did not say that the mother was irresponsible for having a gun in close proximity to a young child. And the police described the incident as a “tragic accident”. You will note that the language is different in this situation than the situation with the young black child who was 12 years old playing with a toy pistol having shot and killed no one nor really pointing the toy gun at anyone. The tape shows that the police came on the scene and shot him dead in less than 10 seconds. Until we can look at this and see the same thing we are going to have problems.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

STOP RUNNING cont.

The police already know what to do because they are doing it everyday. When I was going to college I went in a Woolworth’s store, a store similar to Walmart. I went down there to pick up some sunglasses. When I finally picked out the pair I wanted I reached into my pocket and noticed that I had forgotten to bring my wallet. Damn, I thought to myself, I don’t want to have to go back to the dorm and come back here. So, I looked around and saw there were not many people in the store so I decided heck I’ll just take the glasses since no one is watching me. Wrong decision, when I got outside of the store there had been someone watching me who followed me out and said, “Sir, will you come back into the store with me.?” He took me to a back room and called the Manager and told him that I had just stolen the glasses. The manager was incensed and said, “Well, call the police”. Man, my whole life flashed before my eyes. When the police arrived he was a young police officer and he and the manager were talking and as I watched, I decided I cannot sit here and watch my life go down the drain for some damn $5.00 sunglasses. So, I spoke up and interrupted their conversation about me and said, “Look sir, I am very sorry I did something really stupid, I forgot my wallet and if you would allow me to go and bring the money back to purchase the glasses I hope you would forget this whole situation”. The Manager was livid and was not going to have any of it. But the police officer intervened and began asking some questions – “Well, where do you live?” I said, “I am living on campus right down the street.” “Oh, you are going to college? “Yes, sir.” “Well how are you going there?” “Well I am on a basketball scholarship.” “Wow, that is a lot to lose over something like this”, he said. He then turned to the manager and said look, let him go and bring the money back and that will be that.” So, the manager agreed. Now, that is quite a story and I went on to finish college and earned a Masters Degree. But, what was interesting about it was they let me go back to the dorm on my own and the policeman did not even take me back to school to make sure that I did it. White police officer, white store manager and black stupid college student- but that is an example of community policing. I went back to the dorm got the money took it back to the store and that was the only incident besides traffic violations that I have ever been involved with law enforcement. But, it could have ended very differently. Until that becomes the norm all over the United States we will continue to have problems. And until the police acknowledge that they can apply problem-solving approaches to their work some will continue to misuse their authority and use unnecessary violence where it was not needed. And so good people, here we stand on the crossroads of the Ferguson Commission Report and we stand on the shoulders of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There is no need to run away from Dr. King’s legacy. Why, because truth crushed to the earth shall rise again. How long, not long was another speech Dr. King delivered at the conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965, here he gave a history lesson. Toward the end of Reconstruction, a movement started in America called the Populist Movement. The leaders of this movement began to educate poor whites and blacks that the money interests in the South were playing a game on them to keep wages low. They also told them to counterpoint that strategy and poor whites and blacks needed to come together – unite and formulate a voting bloc to drive these money interests from their command posts of political power in the South. This caused the aristocracy to develop its own strategy and they developed the segregated society by controlling mass media, institutionalizing racism, and the denial of the vote for blacks. They then created laws and put them on the books to make it a crime for blacks and whites to come together on any level. Then they gave poor whites Jim Crow. This was a psychological motivation designed to trick whites into believing that as long as they were better than blacks even if they were as poor or poorer somehow they were superior. For blacks it was to remind them everyday that they were inferior – signs everywhere – “For Whites Only”. This system killed the Populist Movement of the nineteenth century. From Selma to Montgomery was about voting rights and from Selma to Ferguson it is about voting, it’s about excessive use of force by police officers, it is about excessive traffic stops against blacks, it is about excessive fees, fines and jail time for traffic offenses, it is about court revenue overly skewed toward traffic offenses, it is about education, it is about incarceration, its about voter ID laws. If you do not know your history… it is bound to be repeated – How long, not long –because no lie can last forever? How long, not long because truth crushed to the earth shall rise again? How long, not long –will justice wounded lie prostrate in the streets of Ferguson, New York, Chicago, Detroit? How long not long because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice? Will we let the money interests of the 21st century kill the Progressive Movement? We do not need to run away from Martin because he keeps running toward us…

Let us March On Until Victory is Won

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…

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

TheVillageCelebration radio show Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. on www.thevillagecelebration.com.

Call in at 1-855-525-5683

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S.L .A .M.

St. Louis Art Museum

ART COLLECTIONS

EXHIBITS

EVENTS

Admission to the Museum is free every day. Hours:

Tuesday–Sunday, 10:00 am–5:00 pm

Friday, 10:00 am–9:00 pm

Closed Monday

w w w. s l a m . o r g One Fine Arts Drive - Forest Park, St. Louis, MO 63110-1380 314.721.0072

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was never just a background singer, I was always a total artist,â&#x20AC;?

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Thank You!

Stephanie Spruill FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact information: Robyn J. Carmona, Manager at: 570-972-3579 Spruill House Music: 626-797-2429 LEGENDARY VOCALIST STEPHANIE SPRUILL COUPLES RELEASE OF HER SOLO CD “IT’S A JAZZ DAY” WITH UPCOMING LIVE PERFORMANCE AT THE GRAMMY MUSEUM. LOS ANGELES — Oct. 3 was, without a doubt, be a Jazz Day for recording artist and legendary vocalist Stephanie Spruill as she perform music from her newly released CD “It’s a Jazz Day” at the GRAMMY Museum. The concert is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3, in the Clive Davis Theatre at the GRAMMY Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., in Los Angeles. A Los Angeles native, Spruill is said to be one of the top background singers in the world and has sung on perhaps more gold and platinum selling, GRAMMY award winning albums for more iconic performers than any other artist out there. Over the last three decades she has recorded and toured with: Julio Iglesias; Whitney Houston; Tom Petty; Mariah Carey; Tina Turner; Aretha Franklin; Barbra Streisand; Donna Summer; Diana Ross; Billy Idol; Simply Red; Luther Vandross; Talking Heads; Michael Jackson; Placido Domingo; Ricky Martin; Enrique Iglesias; Glen Campbell, Olivia Newton-John; Quincy Jones; and, the list goes on and on.

She sang at the White House for three different administrations, and before the Emperor of Japan; the Queen of England; and, the King of Spain. And, that’s not her only venture into the arts. Spruill was recently featured on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s reality show, “Sweetie Pies,” and graced the stage of the 87th annual Academy Awards singing with John Legend and Common on the Oscar winning best original song, “Glory.” She’s written much of her own songs, as well as writing and arranging songs for other artists and the theme song for a movie. And, besides artist development, coaching of other vocalists, and inspirational speaking engagements, she wrote a motivational book: “17 Points to Longevity in Show Business: Staying Focused On Your Vision.” Spruill also has stayed focused on her own vision, with the release of her solo album, “It’s A Jazz Day.” The CD, which she also produced, features Spruill’s soulful, spirited, range defying vocal styling on a plethora of genres, from R&B to Brazilian, Latin, classic, contemporary urban and traditional jazz. The album also features the talented fingers of world renowned

“I was never just a background singer, I was always a total artist,” Spruill says of opening for, singing duets with, or playing her signature tambourine as a percussionist with myriad iconic names of jazz, pop, classical and R&B artists. She prides herself as a team player, though she’s also an incredible soloist, with a coloratura voice and a range of more than five octaves. The sexy, soulful soprano was once likened by Motown records founder, Berry Gordy to legends Eartha Kitt and Sarah Vaughn. She’s not only recorded on film and vinyl, through the years she’s performed before presidents and royalty the world over.

EPK:

www.stephaniespruill.net

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

STEPHANIE SPRUILL cont.

jazz pianist Patrice Rushen and title song, “It’s a Jazz Day,” was written by eclectic Canadian-American songwriter and recording artist, Brenda Russell, who also sings with Spruill on that number. Spruill says her CD is a bit of all of her favorite things and a blending of her many God-given gifts. From the jazz she grew up listening to in her home to a gospel-flavor from her church upbringing. “It’s more than just singing, every song has a meaning,” she says, adding though she’s passionate about all of her music, one of the most meaningful for her is an 8-minute tribute to jazz great Thelonious Monk. improvise through life. You never know, you can have everything planned out and then life gives you a curve ball. It’s how we come out that matters. I love jazz because it makes me feel free. This album freed me because every day is a jazz day.”

“It’s more than just singing, every song has a meaning”

Though Spruill was previously signed by Clive Davis to ARISTA Records, “It’s a Jazz Day,” and Spruill’s 2011 “Memoirs” album were recorded on her own label, La Pantera Records. As for her purpose in life and her career, Spruill says: It’s my mission to reach the world over and touch everyone with all the artistry in me. I have discovered that God and art are the links that bring us closer to our divine purpose.” For more information, visit: www.SpruillHouseMusic.com

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Dorothy Payne & Michael Castro: Poets Read for Black Lives Matter

Dorothy Payne, World Poetry Movement and Revolutionary Poets Brigade international poet/educator/activist, and Michael Castro, internationally acclaimed poet, translator, and current Poet Laureate of St. Louis, will join voices in support of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Each poet will poetically address the pressing issue of racism, celebrate the contribution of African-Americans to the cultures of the Americas, and express their emphatic solidarity with the struggle for black equality.

The program will include musical/poetic celebrations of some jazz greats and will include live musical performance. Light refreshments will be served.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015 - 7:00pm Parking: Lots one block north and one block east; street parking (meters free after 7pm). For directions and public transportation information, click here.

How Things Stack Up (Paperback)

Birthmarks (Paperback)

By Michael Castro $14.95 ISBN: 9780933439030 Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: Singing Bone Press June 26th, 2014

By Dorothy Payne $12.95 ISBN: 9781883197421 Availability: On Our Shelves Now Published: New Native Press Stewardship - January 4th, 2015 ADD TO CART

ADD TO WISHLIST

ADD TO CART

ADD TO WISHLIST

Left Bank Books | 399 N. Euclid Ave. | Saint Louis, MO 63108 pg.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

RoBurrage

PRODUCTIONS Ronnie Burrage Artist, producer, composer, teacher RoBurrage Productions CEO World Rhythm University

www.ronnieburrage.biz

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Press Release: PLEASE RELEASE IMMEDIATELY Contact: Chanda Burrage, Project Manager & COO, roburrageproductions@gmail.com

RoBu Big Band Concert at Voce, St. Louis

Featuring some of the GREATEST jazz musicians out of St. Louis

Ronnie Burrage and some of St. Louis' finest musicians are returning to Voce on Saturday, October 3 rd at 9 pm and Sunday, October 4 th at 3 pm to perform various jazz standards and original compositions by Ronnie Burrage and Kelvyn Bell. For tickets: http://robubigband.eventbrite.com General Admission is $25.

Band M embers I nclude: Willie A kins, J eff A nderson, K elvyn B ell, R onnie B urrage, S tanley C oleman, Henry C laude, C had E vans, D arrell M ixon, D anny C ampbell, K hamali C uffie-‐Moore, Jdubz, K endra M ahr, C harisse S wan & P tah W illiams

****Second H ost r ehearsal f acility T he U niversity C ity S enior H igh S chool**** ***Sept. 3 0, O ct. 1 & 2 o pen t o t he p ress a nd i nvited m usic s tudents***

RoBu Big Band is under the leadership of Ronnie Burrage, a native of St. Louis who currently resides in Bellefonte, PA. Ronnie, having established himself as one of the most recorded jazz drummers in the industry and the youngest to perform with Duke Ellington and at Carnegie Hall, has traveled the world many times with numerous jazz greats.

The RoBu Big Band project is part of a larger film documentary initiative to explore the rich cultural history of St. Louis and to tell the stories of numerous artists that have come from the region. When it comes to jazz history, St. Louis has trailed behind places like New Orleans because of the well-‐told narratives and funding around New Orleans jazz – inaccurately making it the ‘only’ place where jazz was created and expressed. Similarly, it is critical that these stories be told since, for example, one of our great icons – saxophonist, Willie Akins – is presently battling some serious health issues. His career in jazz in St. Louis is a legacy that will be shared to all through this project.

The work of Ronnie Burrage and his company, RoBurrage Productions, aims to give back to his home of Saint Louis by producing events such as the RoBu Big Band Concert, as well as implementing youth empowerment platforms that advance the legacy of music, art, global leadership and social justice for generations to come. http://Facebook.com/roburrageproductions.com http://ronnieburrage.biz Volume 2.8 Copyright © 2015 - All rights reserved.

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October 13, 2015

ROBURRAGE PRODUCTIONS cont.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

ROBURRAGE PRODUCTIONS cont.

SPONSORSHIP REQUEST

Contact: Chanda Burrage, Project Manager roburrageproductions@gmail.com

RoBu Big Band Concert at Voce, St. Louis

Featuring some of the GREATEST jazz musicians out of St. Louis

Ronnie Burrage and some of St. Louis' finest musicians are returning to Voce on Saturday, October 3 rd at 9 pm and Sunday, October 4 th at 3 pm t o p erform v arious jazz standards and original compositions by Ronnie Burrage and Kelvyn Bell. For tickets: http://robubigband.eventbrite.com General Admission is $25. Band M embers I nclude:

Willie A kins, J eff A nderson, K elvyn B ell, R onnie B urrage, S tanley C oleman, Henry C laude, C had E vans, D arrell M ixon, D anny C ampbell, K hamali C uffie-‐Moore, J dubz, Kendra M ahr, C harisse S wan & P tah W illiams

Film Documentary Project The RoBu Big Band project is part of a larger film documentary initiative to explore the rich cultural history of St. Louis and tell the stories of numerous artists that have come from the region. When it comes to jazz history, St. Louis has trailed behind places like New Orleans because of the well-‐told narratives and funding around New Orleans jazz – inaccurately making it the ‘only’ place where jazz was created and expressed. Similarly, it is critical that these stories be told since, for example, one of our great icons – saxophonist, Willie Akins – is presently battling some serious health issues. His career in jazz in St. Louis is a legacy that will be shared to all through this project. Ronnie Burrage

RoBurrage Productions ONE LOVE, ONE PEOPLE, TONS OF SOUL

HeavyHitter Sponsor – Four Reserved Tables | $1200 • 40 reserved seats & tickets to the concert • Mention on all TV and radio spots • Logo on advertisement and printed event promotional materials • Listed as Platinum Sponsor in final documentary product • Two copies of documentary film – released in 2016/17 Swingtime Sponsor – Two Reserved Tables | $800 • 20 reserved seats & tickets to concert • Mention on all TV and radio spots • Logo on advertisement and printed event promotional materials • Listed as Gold Sponsor in final documentary product • Two copies of documentary film – released in 2016/17 Fusion Master Sponsor – One Reserved Table | $400 • 10 reserved seats & tickets to concert • Logo on advertisement and printed event promotional materials • Listed as Silver Sponsor in final documentary product • One copy of documentary film – released in 2016/17 BeeBop Sponsor – Four Tickets | $150 • Four tickets to concert • Logo on advertisement and printed event promotional materials • Listed as Bronze Sponsor in final documentary product Hotel Sponsor | Two Rooms – Five Nights • 10 tickets to concert for hotel guests and employees • Logo on advertisement and printed event promotional materials • Listed as Gold Sponsor in final documentary product

http://Facebook.com/roburrageproductions.com

http://ronnieburrage.biz

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Visit Our Website

Our mailing address is: Coalition Against Police Crimes & Repression 1401 Rowan Avenue St Louis, MO 63112

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“Acting White”

Share your Story Dear friends: I have been asked to write a chapter in a book that will address colorism in education. My chapter will focus on “acting white.” Specifically, when I was growing up, I was a “smart” student. My top performance in school, doing homework, raising my hand to answer questions, etc. often drew the accusation from my African American classmates and friends that I was “acting white.” Now, I know there are psychologists out there who say this is not true and does not exist. But alas, it was absolutely true for me. I have written about this in past works. I will do so again for this new book. I do know that many young folks today who continue to have such allegations hurled at them so feel free to share this email with whoever and have folks email me directly. I did a survey on this very question about 7 years ago and the results were consistent with my experiences decades ago. I’d like to update my earlier survey. I would love to hear from anyone out there who has a similar/related story either involving yourself or someone you know. I would like to include your story in the chapter. I will conceal your identity if you request. Do you have a story to share? If so, please email to me at: norwood@wulaw.wustl.edu. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead Kimberly Norwood , Professor of Law | Washington University School of Law Copyright © 2015 - All rights reserved.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF HOW PEOPLE ARE SHEEP? KRISTA FRANKLIN MIXED MEDIA COLLAGE, 2015

MIND BLOWN

BRAVE NEW WORLD

MANZEL BOWMAN

DAMON DAVIS

DIGITAL MEDIA, 2015

INTRODUCTION Unveiling Visions: The Alchemy of the Black Imagination is a visual exploration of complex narratives on the esoteric black speculative imagination. Through an analysis of visual culture surrounding Afrofuturism, science fiction, horror, comics, magical realism, and fantasy, the exhibition examines the power that creativity wields in the struggle for various freedoms of expression and the politics of resistance. Divided into six sections—The Living Arkive, The Data Thief, Finding Shadow Objects, The Pantechnological Impulse, Material Culture, Both Real and Imagined, Augmented Reality Through

“The Veil” Unveiling Visions applies a global lens to the black imagination, and brings this context to a wide survey of contemporary works.

This exhibition showcases illustrations, graphic design, literature, posters, and mixed-media digital and analog artworks by 87 emerging, mid-career and acclaimed artists. The collection of visual materials on view serves as a creative, experimental and educational impetus to analyze the growing corpus of work surrounding the nexus between S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) and contemporary artistic production.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION EXHIBITION HOURS Monday – Saturday, 10AM – 6PM

WEBSITE nypl.org/events/exhibitions/unveiling-visions

THE SCHOMBURG GIFT SHOP Monday-Saturday, 11AM – 6PM

RELATED PROGRAMS Fall Open House: The Black Fantastic Wednesday, October 7 | 6PM Our annual showcase of Schomburg collections and exhibitions will focus this year on the following themes: radical storytelling and black speculative fiction; black futurism; protest; and black survival. Visit schomburgcenter.eventbrite.com for more information on all our events.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ON VIEW

OCTOBER 1, 2015 THROUGH

DECEMBER 31, 2015

Curators: John Jennings and Reynaldo Anderson; Exhibition Design: John Jennings and Isissa Komada-John; Art Director: Stacey Robinson; Archivist: Clint Fluker; Curatorial Assistants: Tim Fielder, Damian Duffy, and Chimene Jackson; Director of Education and Exhibitions: Deirdre Lynn Hollman; Exhibitions Manager: Isissa Komada-John; Communications Manager: Candice Frederick; Exhibition Contributors: Mei Tei Sing Smith and Sanders Design Works, Inc., Fabrication and Installation; Printing: Jeffery Sherven; Augmented Reality Developer: Damon Baker; Art & Artifacts Division/Schomburg: Tammi Lawson and Serena Torres; and Jean Blackwell Hutson Research and Reference Division/ Schomburg: Maira Liriano.

IMAGE CREDITS Front cover: “Mind Blown” by Manzel Bowman, courtesy of the artist, copyright 2015; Logo design by Alex Batchelor, Cover design by John Jennings; “Sun Shepardess” by Julie Dillon, Digital Media, courtesy of the artist, copyright 2015; “The Offering” by Paul Lewin, acrylic on canvas, courtesy of the artist, copyright 2015; “Brave New World” by Damon Davis, Digital Media, courtesy of the artist, copyright 2015; “Do Androids Dream of How People Are Sheep?” by Krista Franklin, mixed media collage, courtesy of the artist, copyright 2015; “Mind of My Mind” by John Jude Palencar, oil on canvas, copyright 2016, all rights reserved; “Z-5” by Vigilism X Ikire Jones, Digital Media, courtesy of the artist, copyright 2015. Schomburg Center programs and exhibitions are supported in part by the City of New York; the State of New York; the New York City Council Black, Latino and Asian Caucus; the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus; the Rockefeller Foundation Endowment for the Performing Arts; and the Annie E. and Sarah L. Delany Charitable Trusts.

CONNECT WITH THE SCHOMBURG 24/7 CURATED BY JOHN JENNINGS & REYNALDO ANDERSON www.schomburgcenter.org | #UnveilingVisions

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The New York Public Library

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

THE LIVING ARKIVE

FINDING SHADOW OBJECTS

The archive, or as John Jennings and Reynaldo Anderson call it, the ARKive, is a constantly shifting space that allows for a great deal of flexibility on how artwork is shown and represented within the gallery space. It allows us to travel through the objects on display. The ARKive is a space of discovery, interaction, and constant growth. Each day, a new aspect of our culture is discovered, created, and re-contextualized. Unveiling Visions treats the arts and design as part of an ever-evolving discourse between the past, present and future.

In his award-winning book, The Grey Album, poet and scholar Kevin Young poses a theoretical construct he refers to as “The Shadow Book.” The Shadow Book is a publication that has never actually happened, but constantly “haunts” the existence of an actual text, has been lost, or should be created. Ralph Ellison’s second novel that was never

Z-5 VIGILISM X IKIRE JONES DIGITAL MEDIA, 2015

MIND OF MY MIND JOHN JUDE PALENCAR OIL ON CANVAS, 2015

THE DATA THIEF In his 1995 documentary, The Last Angel of History, artist and filmmaker John Akomfrah introduces the concept of a “Data Thief,” a fictional time-travelling archaeologist that is charged with piecing together black creative history. The Data Thief digs through the detritus of time and space to seek connections between various points in history and formulate a cohesive narrative. It’s within the spirit of this avatar that the curators are operating. Their method is not a direct representation, but rather a critical interpretation through the lens of black speculative cultural production. The thread that joins these objects—both real and imagined—together is in fact the notion of storytelling. The Data Thief is a story that represents what many people are seeking today: a history, a purpose, and a connection to the past that informs our collective future.

completed is a prime example of this concept. Its non-existence inhabits the memory of this great scholar and asks questions that will never be answered. The curators believe that these books emanate from a “shadow world” filled with “shadow objects.” Books and their neverdesigned covers, songs without lyrics, and objects without their designed schematics. Designer and futurist Bruce Sterling calls these “diegetic prototypes” that use narratives to create designs that ultimately become spaces of inquiry and contention around what has and could transpire. Unveiling Visions blurs the line between fiction and reality by stealthily including shadow objects throughout the collection of works on view.

THE PANTECHNOLOGICAL IMPULSE Much of the story of Afrofuturism is told in relation to black bodies and technological prosthetics. However, technology does not have to be an object. It also refers to systems, processes, planning methods, applied knowledge and any designed aspect of a culture that can be used by mankind for various tasks. Therefore, race, religion, literacy, and other cultural

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THE OFFERING PAUL LEWIN ACRYLIC ON CANVAS 2015

constructions can also be seen as technologies. Our curators believe that most Afrofuturists, whether or not it’s intentional, imagine their experiences through a pantechnological perspective. It is through this lens that they are able to metaphorically hack into various situations and overcome adversity by understanding that all problems are systemic in nature. It is this hacker mentality that has served people of African descent for generations. These practices permeate all black cultural production from music to art, and from literature to dance.

MATERIAL CULTURE, BOTH REAL AND IMAGINED The ARKive is a house of material culture. Records, sketches, posters, and books are vital to understanding this culture. To truly delve into black speculative culture, the curators constructed a narrative through the consumable objects of popular Afrofuturism in order to uncover deeper meanings for why these types of dialogues are useful spaces of resistance, and how we can learn from them through use in our everyday lives.

AUGMENTED REALITY THROUGH “THE VEIL” W.E.B. Dubois’s concept of “The Veil” has been scrutinized by scholars and artists alike since he first used the phrase in his seminal book, “The Souls of Black Folk,” at the beginning of the 20th century. The Veil was a literary and philosophical translation of the lives of people

SUN SHEPARDESS JULIE DILLON DIGITAL MEDIA, 2015

of African descent in the Americas. It operated as a second sight, and still functions as a psychological lens through which African peoples in the Americas express anxiety, hopes, fears, and knowledge of the other. This exhibition examines what The Veil often hid from the oppressive other in the creative expression of African peoples. The curators expose what happens when there is a successful fusion within The Veil that is not concerned with American assimilation or acceptance, and instead pursues an autonomous creative reality. This choice illuminates how these cultural creative expressions are connected to Afrofuturism, black speculative thought, magical realism, fantasy and Diasporan culture production. Merging within The Veil, these concepts function as an enhanced lens for critical interpretation, a space to create alternate realities that re-imagine phenomena for African peoples. The artists on view do not ask for permission to identify alternate realities. They envision the world they want and take action to create it.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Click image to

WATCH NOW! pg.

ST. JUDE HERO 2015 NYC Marathon for kids w/ cancer

Need your help! St. Jude and I just need 20 more of you to support kids with cancer. HEY EVERYONE! I am running the 2015 New

York City Marathon for the second time in November. I am raising money once again for St. Jude @ StJude, the great hospital for children with cancer. I am very close to my goal of $3500, and simply need 20 more of you to donate $25 each as soon as you are able, and then I am done and can focus strictly on training for the marathon. Can you please take a few minutes today to make a $25 donation? It would really mean a lot to me. Thank you so much in advance, and here is the link to donate: http://tinyurl.com/nb7p3e3 And if you have previously donated

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Featured

Artist

Submission

I am an artist and an educator. I create murals, contemporary paintings and mixed-media collage / assemblage. While my paintings are generally figurative and stylistic, my collage / assemblage work is more expressive and symbolic - embellished with photographs, jewelry, decorative paper and a variety of found objects and materials. Although these creative styles may at first appear to be in contradiction to each other, they are linked together by subject matter. By often referencing the African American Diaspora. My work is a visual narrative that explores the ongoing social, political and economic challenges of blacks in America. My projects are compositions created in multiple series which may differ in media and technique, yet center around specific themes. One reoccurring theme throughout my work is music. It is through music that the hopes dreams and aspirations of African Americans are often expressed, packaged and communicated first in the black community, then to the world. My goal is to create artwork that critically engages the public to examine the complex realities of African-Americans and the opportunities for change these issues create.

For additional information please visit the following sites:

www.fabulousartbymeronyoung.com YouTube:: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=su1F3xr0dWo Facebook: Fabulous Art Studio

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Ron Young

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change of venue

...

What happens when the founders’ vision of America is re-imagined?

Join us as we exercise radical social imagination—envisioning the world we wish to inhabit through the vision and words of the American author/poet/playwright, Langston Hughes’ Let America Be American Again. Sharing those visions with the world, and sparking next steps to bring that future into being. At our Imagination Station you can take part in this creative activity, make new connections, and make your voice heard. Julia Davis Branch Library | 4415 Natural Bridge | 314-383-3021

DARE TO IMAGINE! pg.

Jamala Rogers Book Signing 2:004:00 p.m.

October 24, 2015 Newsletter Title

Progressive Emporium

You Are Cordially Invited To Join Us for a Book Signing at Progressive Emporium with Ms. Jamala Rogers Saturday, October 24, 2015 2:00-4:00 pm Community organizer, writer and social justice educator Jamala Rogers will share her insight and sign autographs from her new book, “Ferguson Is America: Roots of Rebellion” at Progressive Emporium & Education Center on Saturday, October 24, 2015. Rogers will speak from 2:00-4:00 pm at Progressive Emporium & Education Center, 1108 North Sarah Avenue.

Jamala Rogers Author of new release “Ferguson Is America: Roots of Rebellion” and also “The Best of the Way I See It”

One year after Mike Brown was brutally killed by police: How will we make sure that Black lives matter? On August 9, 2014, Ferguson, St. Louis County, MO became the epicenter of a major political earthquake, shaking the core of how we see Black America, police and policing-jolting us into a new political normal. Rogers book “Ferguson is America: Roots of Rebellion” addresses the root of the problems that occurred in Ferguson and across the nation. A native of Kansas City, Mo., Rogers lives in St. Louis She writes a weekly column for the St. Louis American newspaper and is also on the editorial board of The Black Commentator. Rogers co-founded the St. Louis-based Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) in 1980 and 35 years later continues to provide the organization leadership and mentoring. Rogers’ 1st book, “The Best of The Way I See It” was a powerful compilation of political articles and reflections written about struggle in the lives of the Black community. For more information about the book signing event contact Progressive Emporium & Education Center at (314) 875-9277 Space is limited!! Please come early.

Progressive Emporium & Education Center 1108 N. Sarah Ave. Phone: 314. 875-9277

E-mail: progressiveemporium@yahoo.com http://facebook.com/ progressiveemporiumandeducation center

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY The Gateway Arch

by Bernie Hayes The Gateway Arch is celebrating its golden anniversary this month marking 50 years since completing the monument. Special activities will be held October 24 and October 28, but little time, if any will be in tribute to Percy Green and Richard Daly. Both Green and Daly climbed one leg of the uncompleted Arch to make the community aware that no African-American workers or contractors were hired for the Arch project. The two members of the St. Louis Committee of Racial Equality, had climbed the uncompleted structure on July 14, 1964, to make a powerful statement in their demand for more jobs for black people at the symbol of ‘The Gateway to the West”. Dr. Carter G. Woodson wrote in his 1933 book “The mis-education of the Negro”, ‘For the white man’s exploitation of the Negro through economic restriction and segregation, the present system is sound and will doubtless continue until this gives place to the saner policy of actual interracial cooperation. Not the present farce of racial manipulation in which the Negro is the figurehead. History does not furnish a case of the elevation of a people by ignoring the thought and aspiration of the people thus served. This is slightly dangerous ground here, however, for the Negro’s mind has been all but perfectly enslaved in that he has been trained to think what is desired of him’. Dr. Woodson also wrote ‘If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto. This assumption of Negro leadership in the ghetto, then, must not be confined to matters of religion, education, and social uplift; it must deal with such fundamental forces in life as make these things possible. If the Negro area, however, is to continue as a district supported wholly from without, the inept dwellers therein will merit and will receive only the contempt of those who may occasionally catch a glimpse of them in their plight. As Frederick Douglas said in 1852, “It is vain that we talk of being men, if we do not the work of men”. Dr. Woodson in his books said “Negroes sometimes choose their own leaders, but unfortunately, they are often the wrong kind. Negroes do not readily follow persons with constructive programs. Almost any sort of exciting appeal or trivial matter presented to them may receive immediate attention and temporarily at least liberal support. When the bubble collapses, of course, these same followers will begin to decry Negro leadership and call the misrepresentatives of the group rascals and scoundrels. Inasmuch as they have failed to exercise foresight, however, those who have deceived them should not be blamed as much as those who have liberally supported these impostors. Yet the fault here is not inherently in the Negro, but in what he has been taught.” These are the doctrines and moralities that Percy Green and

Richard Daly believed and acted upon. History is a powerful companion, and too much of ours has been lost, stolen and ignored. A nation deceived about its past can be easily manipulated today. Those who write the history books mold the thinking and set the agenda of the next generation, and sometimes a number of future generations. There is another way in which we have been robbed of our past however: Our history has simply not been taught. As a result, most people are like newborn babes, unaware of anything that has happened prior to their birth. Modern “education” has only made the problem worse. Textbooks not only contain many lies and errors, but they also ignore extensive part of the content of the past. More space is given to “pop heroes” such as Elvis than to the true heroes of our nation, such as Crispus Attucks. I know Memorial Day is several months away that t is a national day of remembrance. A day when all Americans pay respect to fallen heroes or loved ones. What troubles me is all I see on television and in the newspapers about this holiday is the lack of recognition for African Americans who participated in the wars. Some made the supreme sacrifice yet the news media focus of parades and ceremonies practically completely void of blacks or other minorities. Maybe we should celebrate a holiday that features and spotlight African-American war heroes, not that there is anything glamourous about war, but our community should now about and not forget Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, Robert Smalls, and Toussaint L’Ouverture. There should be a great statute of Dorrie Miller, the WWII naval ace who was awarded the Navy Cross, and generals’ Benjamin Davis Jr. and Sr., and General Chappie James. We can’t forget the names of Wendell Pruitt, George Watson, and The Tuskegee Airmen. More than a million African Americans served in WWII. Black women served as Army nurses, WAC’s, WAVE’s and SPAR’s. Blacks served in the Army, Navy, Merchant Marines, and U.S. Marines and in the Air Corps. Blacks have fought and died in all of America’s wars and still we remain almost invisible on days such as Memorial. It is their memorial day or America’s Memorial Day? Enjoy your visit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Gateway Arch. I will remain at home. ~Bernie Hayes

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

MUST- VIEW New Orleans and HURRICANE KATRINA:

10 Years Later

Click Here to WATCH NOW!

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Featured

Poetry

Submission

pg.

JASON VASSER Foster

for Tia and her kin What happens when they begin to question their reflections pointing to the obvious-or when they are taken and given names by the eager to save? Just who will they become when they meet themselves for the first time away from the nest, on the ground where lurking, searching for their truth in a place hides the subliminal, and they become afraid of what they see. Who teaches them to comb their kitchens? or how to speak so their messages are felt by those willing to teach the insignificance of gold teeth or that nappy isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t always bad but part of who they really are? When will they meet Alex Haley? and how will you explain that Kunta was never Toby; yet she used to be Tia who is now Ashley, raised in a family that looks nothing like what she sees, while straightening her hair.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Envy The leaves blow here and there in their own time Deciduous Maples, being who they want riding the wind sun at their backs stems point like arrows falling from steep rock bluffs pointing here and there being who they want riding the wind everywhere they are among the changing weightless many they graze conifers on their way riding the wind being who they want stems pointed like arrows falling from steep rock bluffs watching from the inside through a window watching from the inside through a dash they ride the wind be who they want in their own time they sway to the winds of change and rest atop the grass other leaves buildings, everything until they blow here and there the sun at their backs.

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Red Autumn Blood orange in place of brown maple leaves the wind swift, toppling piles collected once scattered all over the lawn in different stages of change now wait, to be bound set aside in one black bag, for the morning hence all those leaves will be sent to be burned, discarded simply for being leaves. The nature of trees is to grow and be nurtured just so that future generations may come to know how lovely they are along the side of the street when autumn makes its entrance and the light of the sun meets the varied stages of green already making their way to the inevitable way of the maple regardless of neighborhood in the city.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

OCT.

MILLION MAN MARCH FROM ST. LOUIS TO WASHINGTON, DC! Heart 2 Heart Transportation Round trip Excursion! Oct. 9 (2pm) - Oct.10 (9:30pm) $100 to experience the 20th anniversary of the Movement towards JUSTICE with the Honorable Louis Farrakhan! *Buttons $3 or 2 for $5 Departing from and returning to the Hanley Metro Link Station. It is a turn-around trip. No packing. No hotel stay. Rest stops only! CONTACT CHUCK ROBINSON @ 314-566-3216

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John Jennings Associate Professor Visual Studies SUNY Buffalo tumblr: http://jijennin70. tumblr.com/

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Nothing Wasted!

When we nourish one another, in full circle it is returned.!

! !

We experience a certain level of comfort is experienced

while sitting in any kitchen, particularly when food is magically being transformed into delicious nourishment for everyone (no matter which continent you are on). Being invited to participate in the process of food preparation (cleaning, slicing, and dicing) in my Momaji’s kitchen in Varodara, Gujarat, India was my extended Feeding the free

family’s way of welcoming me into the East Indian culture. Mamaji

roaming sacred cows

reminded me repeatedly during my recent visit that “all households

devotion rewarded

are diﬀerent Adelia, we don’t do everything the same way,” she said.

of milk for our

That may appear to be the case initially, but a closer look reveals

in India is an act of

with a continuous ﬂow

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that we are all participating in the same process of loving creation. Whether in my hometown of Montgomery City, Missouri or In Varodara, Gujarat, India, it is obvious that the cook is nourished by our presence, our conversation, and our participation. All are being nourished while observing, learning, participating, and appreciating this process. Of course, the end point of the process will result in nourishing food!!!!

! Chapter 1 Childhood Memories & Radha’s Ghee! !

During my many visits to India, the day begins with the

family gathering around cups of a special tulsi tea that my sister, Smita, prepares with fresh cut herbs from her garden. After morning tea and a brief glance at the daily newspaper, I head for the kitchen to hopefully be invited to participate in some aspect of the day’s food preparation. I sit facing the open door to the porch and notice several empty and clean plastic bags. ! !

These containers arrive at our home ﬁlled with 500

milliliters of raw milk on a daily basis. This sparks memories of my childhood growing up in Montgomery City, Mo. where milk played an important role in my life though I’ve never really liked it that much. Having grown up in a home with extended family —

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

NOTHING W ASTED cont.

where grandparents (on a very limited income) provided for my brother Kenneth and me — we frequently received a gift of raw milk from Uncle “Skillet” (Grover Mahaney), which was a real treat. He would share with us the milk he had brought home from his job at the Miller Dairy Farm. He would always deliver the milk in a very large glass jug my grandmother, Nina, would wash and return to him for a reﬁll. So, my fascination with what was happening to the milk in my East Indian home was triggered by this childhood memory. ! !

After sharing this memory with my new sister Smita, she

invited me to photograph her “milk magic” this was a few years ago. In Varodara, by motorcycle, before 6a.m. each morning, milk is delivered to our home in pint size plastic bags and placed in a metal container on the front porch next to the door. However, I have yet to wake up early enough to photograph the milkman delivering milk in Varodara. ! !

Wedding season in India is in full swing around our

Thanksgiving/Christmas holidays, and is placed on hold during the Christmas season. So I traveled to Mumbai for a two week Christmas holiday to visit my friend Radha and her family (daughters Eva & Natasha along with her husband, Valroy). Natasha set the mood for celebration of this very special holiday by ﬁrst decorating the Christmas tree. Beneath it’s branches — is a nativity scene, surrounded by gayly wrapped gifts while

pg.

Christmas Carols add ambiance. After a brief discussion, we tuned into youtube for A Soulful Christmas album by The Sounds of Blackness, a great group out of Minneapolis, Minnesota. A Temptation’s rendition of some more of my favorite holiday sounds like, “Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer” and “Silent Night”. We snacked, danced, sipped, and ordered Chinese “take out” for our small intimate celebration — went to bed happy.! !

The holiday spirit remained with us throughout my visit

and I shared my memory about milk transformation with Radha! one magical evening as we were returning from a visit to the! neighborhood art supply store. There at at the gate of her housing complex — The Ashok Villa Row Houses Society — talking with the security guard was her milkman, Panna Lal with milk cans hanging on both sides of his bicycle. Excited about the possibilities, we asked him if he would allow me to photograph! him delivering milk on the following day.. He agreed. Then Radha invited me to document her brand of ‘milk magic’. The milkmen, Panna and his brother, Chuni Lal arrived just after the sun set the next day. A long process that sometimes takes up! to a week to produce, the milk products needed to nourish the family, Radha has heated and cooled the milk so that we can begin our documentation. !

! continued on page 80

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

CALLALOO, the premier literary journal of the African Diaspora, is now accepting applications for the 2016 Oxford CALLALOO CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP (CCWW) until December 13, 2015. We invite submissions of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction for admission consideration for this weeklong workshop, which will be hosted by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) at Oxford University, July 10-16, 2015. Fred Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Aguiar (creative nonfiction), Vievee Francis (poetry), and Ravi Howard (fiction) will serve as the 2016 workshop leaders. Fred Dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Aguiar, a native of London who grew up in Guyana, is a novelist, poet, playwright, and essayist. A Jamaican Airman Foresees His Death, his 1991 play, was produced at Royal Court Theatre Upstairs. In June 2013, his most recent collection of poems, The Rose of Toulouse, was published, and his sixth novel, Children of Paradise, was published in February 2014 by Granta (UK) and HarperCollins (USA). Vievee Francis is the author of Horse in the Dark (Northwestern University Press, 2012), which won the Cave Canem Northwestern University Poetry Prize for a second collection, and Blue-Tail Fly (Wayne State University, 2006). Her third book, Forest Primeval, was released in 2015 (Northwestern University Press). Ravi Howard was, in 2008, a finalist for The Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and for the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for his debut novel, Like Trees, Walking. In 2008, he won the Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. His second novel, Driving the King, was published in January 2015. > HOW TO APPLY: Applications must be submitted online at http://callaloo.expressacademic.org/login.php no later than December 13, 2015. Each applicant must submit a brief cover letter and writing sample (no more than five pages of poetry, twelve pages of prose fiction, or twelve pages of prose creative nonfiction). To complete & submit your application, go to http://callaloo.tamu.edu/node/240. For additional information, email (callaloo@tamu.edu) or call (979-458-3108). Find the CCWW FAQ online, as well.

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CALLALOO CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP

NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS

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NOTHING W ASTED cont.

Panna and Chuni Lal deliver milk to Radha.

pg.

Malai (cream) ďŹ&#x201A;oating in the milk, time to make butter.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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! ! ! My Grandma Nina, Smita, and Radha boiled their milk in a pan on top of their stoves before consuming it, to kill any bacteria. They would let it cool, collect the fatty cream, the malai. “Malai is what we call cream.” says Smita, “It is used more often in North Indian cooking than in South Indian food” {It is the cream that comes from all kinds of milk” Often Radha uses hand blender to make the butter. It is cow, buﬀalo, or goats milk, sometimes all three. Smita’s loyal friend Anjali says with a smile and a wink}. !

! !

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Adding cool water while churning aids in the separation of the milk from the fatty creamy

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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! ! Radhaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s son-in-law, Valroy, loves this butter. She sets aside fresh

homemade butter for him to apply to his morning chapatti with fresh fruit jam.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

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! ! ! ! ! Radha removes the freshly churned butter from table to the sink for a ďŹ nal rinse before heating it to create ghee.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! continued on page 86

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Hidden Jewels of North St. Louis

To all: I am trying to close in on my target for this project, please do two things: Support it with a donation as small as $10.00 and Forward this e-mail to friends, family and colleagues in hopes they can support as well. This link includes both the IndieGoGo site, and my St. Louis on the Air Interview.

Why Hidden Jewels of North St. Louis Matters For those who just want to go straight to the campaign site go here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hidden-jewels-of-stl/x/46548#/ Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s make this project happen! Thank you!

-Phillip W. Johnson, Producer of the #Ferguson Film Fire this Time

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

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! ! ! ! ! ! !

! The water in the malai froths, then becomes

steam, then evaporates as the ghee rises to the top.

! ! ! ! !

pg.

Radhaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Buffalo butter being heated to separate the milk proteins to create ghee.

! !

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Radha’s ghee.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

A stainless steel canister will store Rhada’s ghee.! !

pg.

Chapter 2 ! Smitaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ghee! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! At home in Varodara, milk containers that

Smita (my sister) has rinsed clean and readied for recycling.

! !

Smita has phenomenal organizational skills and the speed

at which she whirls around the kitchen (and the rest of the house for that matter) will attest to that. Each morning she plans the days menu and receives assistance from expert cook, Sonal Ponchal. While Sonal chops vegetables, Smita continues to prepare the ghee, the curd, and milk proteins for prasad and other sweets. It will only take an hour for the dynamic duo to complete these task before heading oďŹ&#x20AC; to their next challenge. Smita will head to her jewelry shop, and Sonal to her next home. !

! !

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

NOTHING W ASTED cont.

! This is the malai that was

ﬂoating above the cooled

milk. Smita has removed it from most of the milk and

has placed it in a stainless

steel bowl to be “churned” into golden butter by

using an electric wand blender.

! ! !

Smita places the fresh butter in a pot for the ghee preparation.

! !

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

pg.

Smita is heating milk on far burner to start process for making a new batch of yogurt/curd.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

The large pot in foreground holds butter being heated to remove milk proteins preparing the ghee.

After this milk cools, it is refrigerated for use the following day.

! !

continued on page 94

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

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NOVEMBER 5 - DECEMBER 17, 2015

(EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT)

SEE OUR INSTRUCTORS AND WORKSHOPS A BIT ABOUT US AND OUR MISSION

Night Writers STL, offers six weekly, writers workshops to beginning and established writer’s in St. Louis City and surrounding areas. Workshops will spotlight a new instructor every two weeks to expose workshop participants to different styles and forms. The goal of Night Writers STL is to foster mentorships among new and established local writers and to bring our diverse writer communities closer together. Each workshop night will be followed by a reading from participants of the workshop and fellow writers. Reading is open to the public and is $2 at the door. Workshop and reading will take place at the beautiful upstairs bar and conference room at Tree House located at 3177 S. Grand Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63118. Workshops are $25 per class. $15 for Students and persons over 60-years of age. Students must have a valid high school or college I.D. to receive discount.

O U R

Jason Vasser

Workshop dates: November 5 & 12 6:30pm-8:30pm

I N S T RU C TO R S

Richard Newman Workshop dates: Nov. 19 & Dec. 3 6:30pm-8:30pm

Jane Ellen Ibur

Workshop dates: December 10 & 17 6:30pm-8:30pm

Night Writers STL is supported by Alchemy 7 Publishing, Tree House Restaurant located in the historic South Grand district, and our long-time partner, First Civilizations- a Literary and Arts nonprofit.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

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A fresh batch of ghee is now

complete and will be stored in this

container and used in the daily

preparation of

nutritional meals.

! ! ! !

! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

pg.

Smita tends to the milk proteins that remain after the ghee is strained from the melted butter. The milk proteins await transformation into so many scrumptious goodies. Sonal chops vegetables.

! !

The milk solids like the ghee can be stored up to 1 year without refrigeration.

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Yesterdays curd provides starter for todays batch of fresh curd.

Curd starter is blended quickly into the cooled milk with the magic wand.

! !

pg.

100

! After Smita adds yogurt starter (a portion of the curd from yesterdays batch) to a pint size container of the cool milk, blends the two ingredients, she pours it into the bowl and sets it on top of the refrigerator. Sometimes some of the milk is left out over night to sour more so that it can be consumed as a delicious ‘buttermilk’ drink. Leaving it out over night on top of the refrigerator as Smita often does in summer (or enclosed in the convection oven over night in winter) will supply the next days family meals with fresh home made curd as well, and the circle goes on. !

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

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! After Smita adds yogurt starter (a portion of the curd from yesterdays batch) to a pint size container of the cool milk, blends the two ingredients, she pours it into the bowl and sets it on top of the refrigerator. Sometimes some of the milk is left out over night to sour more so that it can be consumed as a delicious â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;buttermilkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; drink. Leaving it out over night on top of the refrigerator as Smita often does in summer (or enclosed in the convection oven over night in winter) will supply the next days family meals with fresh home made curd as well, and the circle goes on. !

pg.

102

! ! Reﬂections! My Grandmother created buttermilk and other goodies, but never separated the milk fat to make ghee that I can remember, but like Smita and Radha, she had a repertoire of very exciting dining tricks the family depended on. She rendered grease from pork to fry bread, other meat, and to ﬂavor vegetables. She rendered goose fat to rub on our chest when we had colds and heaven forbid if we had, mumps. She would then wrap our heads and jaws with a sling which has been soaked in the oil from a sardine can. Grandma, Smita, and Radha, three thrifty, and creative women nourish(ed) the bodies and the souls of their families in a very magical way. !

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John Jennings Associate Professor Visual Studies SUNY Buffalo tumblr: http://jijennin70. tumblr.com/

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Rickkita Edwards teaches Core:Cardio & More @ North Co.Rec Center

every Mon-Wed- Fri.

5:30 PM-6:30 PM

She also teaches "WaistNWeights" every Mon

@ Faith Miracle Temple

7:15 PM-8 PM

Contact me today for personal training sessions!

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

CHOP/THE WORLD/THE KWANSABA Redmond, Treasure Shields. chop: a collection of kwansabas for fannie lou hamer. Stow, Ohio: Winged City Chapbooks, 2015.

The collection is a practical touchstone for testing Marcuse’s theory regarding aesthetic dimensions. The kwansaba, for the benefit of those who are unfamiliar with the form, was invented by Eugene B. Redmond in 1995, and it is a form that demands discipline, craft and craftiness. A kwansaba must have seven lines; each line must contain seven words; each word must have seven or fewer letters. Many poets choose to write lines in their kwansabas that flow with minimal internal punctuation, enabling readers to experience uninterrupted sweeps of sound. Treasure Redmond, however, maximizes the implicit economy of the kwansaba, using short units of sound to imitate the syntactic/synchronic character of thought and the additive qualities of speech. Consider five lines from “justice” (page 14):

“Art breaks open a dimension inaccessible to other experience,” Herbert Marcuse wrote in the conclusion of The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics (1978), “a dimension in which human beings, nature, and things no longer stand under the law of the established reality principle” (72). Like other thinkers of his tribe, Marcuse reified the limits of the binary as he struggled to break free from its grip. His dilemma is nicely refracted in the closing proposition of his lucid essay: “If the remembrance of things we stay in holly springs. can’t stay past would become a motive power in the struggle for changing the world, the struggle would be waged for a revolution in oxford. awaiting trial like daniel. den hitherto suppressed in the previous historical revolutions” (73). Echoing a bourgeois title to locate the conditional, he so loud we hear it 25 miles illuminates the suppressive force of language that imprisons one in “the established reality principle.” Is there no way out? away. sheriff, police, highway patrol Yes, there is, but Marcuse stopped short of taking it. Reality principles are not established or fixed; they are remarkably namd law fluid. Over a long period of time, a revolution first changes prevailing modes of thinking, which, during another span of breakr. they got cousins in the jury time, changes the material conditions of human life. Thus, Fannie Lou Hamer was a bit more perspicacious than Marcuse in understanding revolution. She lived what he could only theorize. Line 2 is the jewel . The occurrence of a period between “daniel” and “den” is a rewarding disruption of our clichéd expectation ---daniel (in the lion’s ) den; we are also soundslammed into recognition of the hitherto unavailable by “den/ As an engaged poet who wishes to open a hitherto rarely accessed dimension, Treasure Redmond is to be commended so loud,” momentarily hearing the “din” in the “den,” a most for crafting a collection of kwansabas as a tribute to one of the accurate rendering of Mississippi Delta dialect. One suspects that Redmond learned how to use dialect judiciously from the bravest women who ever lived in the Mississippi Delta. chop master poets Paul Laurence Dunbar and Sterling A. Brown is book that W. E. B. DuBois might have mentioned favorably in The Gift of Black Folk (1924). Redmond took the challenge and from listening attentively to how talk sounds and means in of contemporary poetics to be innovative in using a fixed form, some parts of Mississippi. the kwansaba; she also accepted the challenge of representing how the forms of things unknown functioned in Hamer’s mind and in Hamer’s letting a light shine on the American body It unlikely that chop or any collection of modern poetry can politic of the twentieth century. In her introductory remarks or should escape the reality principles signified by language, for the collection, Redmond asserts that her intention was to because the dimensions the kwansabas open for us are not let “the poems seek to work in concert using the economical ahistorical. Indeed, for readers who know little about Civil nature of the Kwansaba form to get at what was most essential Rights history in Mississippi, a full appreciation of those about Hamer’s mammoth contribution to American life”(2). dimensions might require surfing the Internet, or, reading For chop is a remarkable fulfillment of that intention. Freedom’s Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer (Urbana: pg.

110

University of Illinois Press, 1999) by Chana Kai Lee and other books about the unfinished struggles for civil and human rights in the American South. The specific referents in the poems -----”winona /jail,” “fannie, annie and vickie,” “marlowe,” “paps,” and “ ‘lantic city,” for example--and Redmond’s chronological sampling from Hamer’s life history test one’s cultural literacy. Readers will construct the aesthetic dimensions of chop in accordance with the knowledge or lack of knowledge they can use in negotiations with the kwansabas. Much to her credit, Treasure Redmond demonstrates how the discipline of the kwansaba can move readers to have transformative aesthetic experiences in acquiring a more critical sense of America’s history. by Jerry W. Ward, Jr. September 15, 2015

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Fitness Boss & First Civilization

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I have been under a great deal of stress and I realized I hadnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t thought about my cortisol levels and how they could be possibly elevated. As well as any additional factors that could be playing a role in my weight gain and struggles to lose.

Here are some tips on how to get to know your body! What should you do? Pay attention, if you are working out almost every day of the week and you know that you are eating clean and you are still stuck when you look at that scale, there is probably an issue! Look for over the counter and herbal remedies that may address Adrenal Health and cortisol, there are a number of OTC natural remedies.

This brought me to thinking about my adrenal health including my Cortisol levels and how it could be affecting me. What exactly is Cortisol? Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the body within the adrenal gland.

Review where you may be stressed in life and begin to remove stressors and/ or seek professional help to address any issues you may not be able to address on your own. Last but not least go see your health care provider! They will ultimately be able to test your cortisol levels and overall pg.

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Health, Beauty

And

Fashion

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

AfroWorld is an African-American owned and operated cultural and fashion center located in St. Louis. It was founded in 1970 and has been a space where the community can come to learn, share, and shop! In 2015 we are proud to celebrate our 45th year of service to our customers. AfroWorld needs your support so we can continue to have the funds necessary to market, operate, and sustain high quality cultural education programs that support our network of authors and artists who participate in our ongoing community empowerment series. We also want to purchase computers and materials to increase the efficiency of our outreach efforts, educate the next generation of community entrepreneurs, and upgrade the tech equipment used to produce our events and programs. Your financial commitment allows AfroWorld to continue its legacy of bringing people together in a space that celebrates and uplifts the African-American experience.

Please help us reach our goal today! pg.

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Redefine the Life in Your Lifestyle I know that it’s been a while since I’ve e-mailed you, I truly hope that all is well! I also hope that you’ve been able to stay up to date with all the happenings via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Between my recent trip to Mexico and the latest additions at the Meditation Lounge, there’s been way more to share than there is time, but I do the best I can! Healing Spa is Back!

So I want to tell you quickly that right after Journey Meditation this Sunday, the Healing Spa starts at 5:15pm! I haven’t offered this experience since October so I know that many of you are super excited about this. If you haven’t yet been, it’s a beautiful experience... You will be in a group setting with soothing, healing music to help you relax while you focus your intentions on the clarity or healing you seek. I’ll spend 15-20 minutes per person laying hands and sharing the spiritual insight that I receive for you. Please Register in Advance Our standard classes no longer require advance registration, however due to the nature of this experience, I’ll need to limit how many people attend so advance registration is required in order to attend. You can sign up online HERE or call 314-441-6929 to get signed up over the phone.

www.selenaj.com

Classes Offered 5 Days a Week In case you’re out of the loop, we now have meditation and yoga classes at the Meditation Lounge 5 days a week and our rates are still in the introductory phase! A single class is $10, but you can save by signing up for a Monthly Membership (starting at $35 p/m), or Pay-As-You-Grow Class Passes (starting at $40) - either way you save! Check out all of your options and view the class schedule and all of the services that we’re offering at www. selenaj.com! I’m looking forward to seeing you in classes this Sunday!

Peace, Love & Light, SJ

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

What Did You Make Today? When I was about 9 years old, my father sliced through his left thumb with a utility knife while we were putting together a red model car. After panicking for a few seconds, I ran to the bathroom to grab a towel to wrap around his hand. He followed me and washed the wound. After a few choice curse words, he sent me to the basement to bring him a needle and thread from Mom’s sewing table and then to the dining room to bring him a bottle of liquor. I don’t remember what he gulped, but I remember him swallowing a mouthful while I threaded the needle… then watched him sew the wound closed. I had to hold one end of the thread taut while he tied knots with his uninjured hand. I thought for sure we wouldn’t finish putting the model car together… but we did. Dad wrapped his thumb in cotton and tape, got another knife (after the liquor wore off), and went back to work putting the model together. We finished it and the car sat on our piano for the next 25 years. Every time I looked at it, I thought about that afternoon. We never put together another model car; instead we moved on to model train sets. But no matter what we put together, it was always important to make something. In this case, the sliced thumb was a casualty of creation. On my own, I did needlepoint, knitting and crochet. My maternal grandmother was my enabler. She once came to our house with a shopping bag full of yarn and I crocheted every bit of it. I made winter hats for the whole family and afghans to keep our feet warm. But my most memorable yarn creation was an orange and gold-fringed granny square outfit that I made in honor of Tina Turner. I’d seen her on TV in that gold lame fringed dress and I wanted to be an Ikette so badly. So I spent a couple days crocheting a top and skirt then adding long pieces of gold fringe that would shake while I danced. I practiced the lip-syncing and dance moves to the record on my sister’s record player during the rest of the week. That Saturday night, I performed my one-woman show in front of my folks and their friends after a rousing game of Pokeno. I shook and shimmied, and went rolling down the river to the music until my head hurt. I would have made Tina proud. When the music ended, I took my bows to thunderous and loving applause.

I didn’t get money to buy clothes, but Mom and Dad would buy me fabric and patterns. I sewed most of my clothes in high school. In the summers between my college years, I sewed to have something new to wear on campus. The summer before I began my first teaching job, I sewed everyday so I’d have something pretty to wear for my students. Granted, some outfits were better than others and I wore them all with pride. Making things instills pride in the maker. Instead of saying, “I bought this,” you can say, “I made this.” If you buy something, you don’t know the maker, you don’t know where it comes from or under what conditions it was made. You just fork over some money to a stranger in a store. When you make something yourself you know where it came from, you know how it was made, and you will probably value it more. In a throwaway society like ours it’s easy to buy something cheap, throw it away when you’re done, and go buy another one. But that doesn’t work for me. I am proud of the model car my father helped me make. I wish I still had that fringed outfit. And I still sew as much as I can, though quilting takes up most of my time today. Making things gave me confidence and made me a bit thrifty. And that’s okay. I still “make do” with what I have because I know that what I have is great. What I can make is even better! So the next time you’re hanging out with your kids, don’t ask them, “What did you do today?” Ask them, “What did you make today?” If they didn’t make anything, for goodness sake buy them some paper, pencils, crayons, and markers. Let them be creative. Play some music and let them dance. Give them piano lessons. You never know what great, creative, passionate, problem solvers they may grow up to be.

Yet, making things wasn’t just for fun; it was also necessity. I was required to learn to sew. When I asked to go shopping for clothes as a teenager, Mom responded, “Learn to sew or be naked.” I knew she meant it. My folks were children of the Depression so you learned to make do with what you have.

Sew Angee... keeping the world bright, colorful, and funky

sewangee.blogspot.com pg.

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ART OF FOOD

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

For Two

Over the summer my mom brought home some fish from one of our local grocery stores. It was already prepped, seasoned, breaded, etc. All we had to do was throw it in the oven. When she mentioned that it was Tortilla Crusted Tilapia, my one eyebrow immediately raised. I couldn’t wait to try it and believe me it did not disappoint! So for this month’s recipe, I decided to try and recreate it. I’m still trying to think of ways to improve the recipe a little bit more but for my first attempt…the outcome was amazing! One trick you need to know: Bread the fish right away & eat right away as well. Because we are using tortilla chips and not regular tortillas, we want to bread the fish so the mixture does not become too soggy. The chips definitely need to stay as crispy as possible. Which is the same reason why this dish needs to be eaten

right away.

I would love to hear feedback on this recipe and previous recipes. Let me know what worked, what didn’t, what you did differently or what (dish/skill/ingredient) you may need help with. Contact me at goldensbaby@gmail.com, I look forward to hearing from you all. ~Lena O.A. Jackson

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Lime-Tortilla Crusted Fish 2 filets Tilapia, thawed ¼ tsp Onion Powder ¼ tsp Garlic Powder ¼ tsp Ground Cayenne Pepper 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper ¼ tsp Ground Cumin 1 tsp Salt 3 oz Multi-Colored Tortilla Chips ¼ C Cilantro & Parsley leaves, minced Juice of 1 lime Zest of 1 lime 1 egg (for egg wash) dashes of Tequila Lime Seasoning (found in Soulard) DIRECTIONS: 1. Preheat oven to 375°F Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray. 2. Place tortilla pieces, lime juice, cilantro, lime zest, parsley and spices in blender. Pulse until the mixture is uniform small crumbs. Spread on plate. *Alternatively If you do not have a food processor, mince or finely chop the parsley and cilantro. Then add the lime juice, lime zest to the mixture and spices to the mix. In a Ziploc bag, crush the chips until they are very fine, tiny bites. 3. Beat egg in shallow dish. Dip each fillet in egg, then in crumbs, patting crumbs to adhere. Place on baking sheet. Bake until fish flakes, about 15 minutes depending on thickness of fillets.

Doré

Bon Appétit,

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Reading Kevin Powell’s Education Powell, Kevin. The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood. New York: Atria Books, 2015

Autobiography is one of the more intriguing mixed genres of American writing. Elizabeth Bruss’ Autobiographical Acts: The Changing Situation of a Literary Genre (1976) may lead us to believe that the “rules” governing autobiography are stricter than those which pertain to drama, poetry, and fiction; awareness that generic “rules” are based on abstractions from histories of reading, however, invite us to amend them in our acts of interpretation, in the acts we commit in order to grasp the meaning of texts. We are willing to break them. We allow the writer of autobiography great latitude in arranging language and rhetorical devices in her or his effort to bear witness to “a truth, “ because we associate the truth of what happened with the individual’s confessional, psychological ego-investments. Adjustments, exaggerations, forgetting and remembering, and selective displacements are in motion as part of the shared authority of the writer and the reader. Our own egos and needs are implicated in judgments about what is true or false. So too are our ideas about collective features of life histories. What social and cultural conditions are the powerful motives in the act of writing? What counts most in our reading and interpretation of autobiography, perhaps, is the sense that the narrator as well as the persona who stands in for a Self are reliable. We demand, in most cases, assurances that the autobiography is more than an absurd, commercial gimmick or a game of linguistic wilding. If the assurances fail, we are not devastated. We all understand how American citizens “play” one another. These considerations allow us to have a rich transaction with The Education of Kevin Powell. Even before we begin to read Powell’s autobiography, we may be given pause by his strategic choice of a title. The Education of Kevin Powell echoes the title of an older, privileged, and seldom read autobiography, namely The Education of Henry Adams. Perhaps the choice was not merely accidental. Perhaps the twenty-first century Kevin Powell actually wanted to expose the vast and crucial differences between his journey and the one taken by the elitist nineteenth-century descendent of two American presidents. To imitate a well-known metaphor from Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, we can say that as writers Powell and Adams are connected in a literary enterprise; as American citizens, they as separate from one another as the little finger is from the thumb. The exact circumstances of Powell’s choice are, and should remain, a tantalizing mystery. It suffices that The Education of Kevin Powell is a magnificent deconstruction of the fiction named the “American Dream.” Powell’s autobiography or memoir is a trenchant disrupting of the enabling grounds that inform The Education of Henry Adams. Thus, Powell secures his niche in the tradition of American autobiography by maximizing the oppositional potency of the African American autobiographical tradition, the telling a free story about what is universally recognized as unfreedom. And we ought not minimize the fact that Powell gives us both subjective and objective evidence of his character and courage through writing as an act of brutal honesty. It may be apparent to discerning readers that The Education of Kevin Powell is a gendered, medium-crossing, asymmetrical companion to The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill (Ruffhouse Records CK69035), a musical witness that conjures Carter G. Woodson’s The Miseducation of the Negro (1934). Other readers may think of The Education of Sonny Carson (1972) and the 1974 film of the same title, of the education that is actually located in the mean streets of our nation rather than in its “celebrated “institutions of public schooling and higher learning. The value of such associations is to highlight what an American education outside the questionable “safe” zones of formal institutions really is. Focusing on American education prevents an automatic reading of Powell’s book as yet another African American saga of abject disadvantage and noble struggle to transcend. His writing pertains more to flight into than flight from something. By way of learning-oriented approaches to his text, we might discover what that something might be and why we need to be better informed about it than most of us are. Giving priority to our education as readers frustrates the banal tendency to stereotype American and African American autobiographies as stories of radicalization and identity politics and racialization. An unorthodox reading of The Education of Kevin Powell can expose how phony is a tearful and self-serving reception of the book. Reading against the grain reduces indulgence in the delusion and bad faith of pity. It liberates us to grasp how raw will power enables an American male to prevail in the endless, uneven, traumatic attempt to reach the telos of being human, of being a good citizen in a chaotic universe. Powell’s autobiography makes a strong case for the power of the will. He reinforces the idea of responsible agency which is central in the essays he collected and edited in The Black Male Handbook (2008) and in his own essays in Who’s Gonna Take the Weight?: Manhood, Race and Power in America (2003) and Someday We’ll All Be Free (2006). Indeed, we can learn from this autobiography what the American entertainment/ disinformation industry wants us not to know about the essence of being hip-hop or the transformational complexity of oppositional stances. Powell exposes the education America imposes upon it male citizens. This autobiography has two parts. Part 1 “trapped in a concrete box” contains seventeen chapters which deal with the spatial origins of Powell’s long, unfinished journey; the thirteen chapters of Part 2 “living on the other side of midnight” give specificity to the pg.

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temporal, to the events and people in the unique trajectory of Powell’s life to the present. The introduction establishes the dominant image of violence and being beaten, the image that haunts us frequently in the autobiography and in our everyday lives. Powell’s words “the beating as punishment for my life” operate in unsettling concert with the line “trapped in a concrete box” from his poem “Mental Terrorism” in Recognize (1995) and his plain assertion that “writing is perhaps the most courageous thing I’ve ever done.” Through writing Powell instructs us time and again that “there is something grotesquely wrong with a society where millions of people face daily political, cultural, spiritual, psychological, and economic oppression by virtue of their skin complexion.” His recognition of what is at once explicit and implicit in an American education justifies his desire to have writing “open up minds, feed souls, bridge gaps, provoke heated exchanges” and authorizes a yearning, present throughout world history, to have writing “breathe and live forever.” Without saying so directly, Powell challenges Allan Bloom’s famous lamentations in The Closing of the American Mind (1987), and subverts Bloom’s complaint by writing to open the imagined mind of the United States of America. Critics who cohabitate with aesthetics have no reason to fear that Kevin Powell minimizes craft in contributing to the production of knowledge, because he is appropriately literary in shaping autobiography. The title of his book is a very literary gesture, a discriminating invitation to use uncommon cultural literacy about the nature of American autobiography. He is even more recognizably literary in using the device of the catalog of discoveries (as Richard Wright used it in Black Boy) to hammer ideas about the journey from boyhood to manhood -----”like the rupture...like the longing...like the bewilderment...like the hostile paranoia...like the cryptic sense of great expectations.” And the latter allusion is one result of Powell’s having read both Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens in his youth. Powell’s anaphoric use of “I remember...I remember...I remember” attests to how he inserts his poetic sensibility to serve the rhetorical ends of creative non-fiction. And it is remarkable that he rewrites a passage from Black Boy about how adults use alcohol and words to “corrupt” a child for their careless amusement to dramatize an educational moment. Like Wright, Powell uses what purports to be remembered dialogue to intensify our sense of the affective properties of historiography and to suggest historical process always comes back to us as narrative not as objective reporting that is in denial of its inherent subjectivity. Powell is crafty and exceptionally skilled in creating literature that does not hesitate to critique the limits of moral imagination. Or, for that matter, the innate immorality of twenty-first century societies, and those wretched circumstances, so permanent in our heritage of social and racial contracts, which cast light on the moral dimensions of his profound struggles with his own sexism and his anger, his male American identity. The Education of Kevin Powell and Ta-nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me are indebted to Wright and to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, a fact that legitimizes comparison. But the comparison ought to be tough-minded and should make a special note that Coates and Powell are writing from different but convergent class positions. Interpretive association of Coates with Benjamin Franklin and of Powell with Henry Adams enables us to have fresh perspectives on representing privilege, race, and power without falling into merely tendentious literary and cultural criticism or drowning in lakes of fickle public opinions. But we must remember that an understanding of these autobiographical writings also imposes upon us the need to assess what we know or do not know about our own existential choices which pertain to leadership and activism. The books complement each other as we try to make sense of individual plasticity in human response to Nature and multiple environments. Reading both compelled me to make a choice. I admit that the vernacular qualities of The Education of Kevin Powell instruct me more thoroughly about the genre of autobiography. His writing encourages me to learn more about aligning the building of knowledge for everyday use with critical aesthetic response.

Jerry W. Ward, Jr. October 4, 2015

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

VIDEO: bell hooks + Kevin Powell conversation on manhood, trauma, hiphop, violence against women, healing, more:

Click below to watch now!

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Portfolio Fundraiser Moves to Artist's Studio

Janet Riehl's "Women & Wardrobe: The Riehl Collection" exhibit has finished it's successful run at The Portfolio Gallery and Education Center. It brought in $2,000 to help with much-needed building repairs. Many people went home with framed ($150) and unframed ($50) prints they love, and a good time was had by all. Folks have said they would have loved to have seen the show, and were sorry they missed it. Janet has decided to host At Home evenings on Wednesdays from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. so you can! Come visit, enjoy the work, and of course buy whatever calls to you. Any profit realized will continue to benefit Portfolio Gallery. If you'd like to come, please contact her at janet.riehl@gmail.com. Janet and Robert Powell, director of Portfolio Gallery and Education Center appeared on Fox 2 news. http://fox2now.com/2014/07/29/women-wardrobe-and-art-on-a-cell-phone-atportfolio/# Janet and her art was featured in the Alton Telegraph. http://www.thetelegraph.com/news/home_top-lifestyle-news/50095336/Artists-workmakes-Riehl-results#.U-Tbf1Ao7qC

Come on out! Meet some new people and enjoy some playful, colorful, and sensuous art inspired by African Women.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

s e s s e r t c A k c a l B r ities fo

n u t r o p p O

D N A R FA

N E E W T E B W FE

Opportunities for Black Actresses Far and Few Between

Have you noticed that most of the leading TV and film actors are White males? They’re the characters in the center of the screen, the focus of attention, usually connoting power, authority and control.

Common sense would dictate that the industry is a meritocracy; that the most talented or qualified are hired. But this is not necessarily the case. In reality, it’s virtually a closed hegemonic society with a myriad of structural impediments imbedded in the system. Even though there have been a series of onslaughts on the powerful Hollywood citadel, to knock down the proverbial doors, there has been barely a dint. a critical mass of actors of color and women across ethnicities are locked out.

At the 2015 Emmys on Sunday, September 20, Viola Davis, with moral clarity, gave a passionate and powerful speech in accepting the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for How to Get Away with Murder. After 50 years of this award category, she was the first woman of color to win.

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Davis minced no words in speaking about the difficulties Black women face in obtaining lead roles. Yes, this was her bully pulpit. “The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity,” she opined. “You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there.”

But even when the roles are there, they tend to be negatively stereotyped. Davis, herself, played the maid (aka the mammy) in the movie, The Help, released in 2011, roundly condemned by Black scholars, among others. The Association of Black Women Historians expressed dismay with the film written by Tate Taylor and adapted by Kathryn Stockett. The historians asserted: “Despite efforts to market the book and the film as a progressive story of triumph over racial injustice, The Help distorts, ignores, and trivializes the experiences of Black domestic workers.”

The Help takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the heart of the Civil Rights era. It depicts the Black working-class as filled with quiet desperation, ambling and backwards. The maids work for Jackson’s

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLACK ACTRESSES cont.

White elite, descendants of the slave owning class that held Blacks in involuntary servitude.

There was a lot about the film that was objectionable. For one, the use of Black southern dialect was unnecessary. One scene is where Davis’ character (Abilene) tells the little White girl she cares for: “You is smart. You is kind. You is important.” Another case in point is the onedimensional representation of Black men as cruel and uncaring, while in reality, White men were notorious for their brutality as well as sexually exploiting Black maids in White homes.

To add insult to injury, the White society damsel, Skeeter, played by Emma Stone, is the heroine. Returning from college with aspirations of being a writer, she persuades the maids to be interviewed for her book. At first reluctant, they know all too well the consequences of violating the South’s entrenched rabidly racist codes. These hardworking, churchgoing and dignified women spent their working lives around southern Whites, particularly the prominent gentry. And as quiet as it’s kept, the prim and proper ladies and the southern gentlemen oftentimes

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smoothly and deftly wreaked the most havoc (albeit behind the scenes) in maintaining the social order. Finally, the maids relent and Skeeter gains national recognition for her novel.

Suffice it to say, it’s all too obvious that for Viola Davis to vault to the ranks of Emmy status, she had to first subject herself to performing a series of subservient roles. The same can be said for Octavia Spencer, who won the Oscar for supporting actress in The Help.

Even some of Halle Berry’s roles have been of the sordid types. In Monsters Ball, Berry’s character has an affair with a White racist prison guard who executed her hardened criminal husband. She’s also an abusive mother to her over-weight and cowering son. And for this role, Berry won an Academy Award in 2002 for best actress for Monsters Ball. Remember B.A.P.? This is her “ghetto fabulous” role. Even in Jungle Fever, at the beginning of her career in 1991, directed by Spike Lee, she plays a pathetic crack-head, with her equally pathetic crack-head boyfriend played by Samuel L. Jackson.

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLACK ACTRESSES cont.

Some might contend that many White actresses also play less than honorable roles. Charlize Theron played a despicable character in Monster, based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, A Daytona Beach prostitute who became a serial killer. But Theron has many more options. She doesn’t have to play these negative depictions over and over again until she becomes type-casted and stereotyped.

While African-American women are making small strides in TV and film, they still have long way to go. Yet, I’ve even heard African Americans in rebutting the controversy about The Help blithely ask: “It’s just a movie. So why are people so upset?”

Black women historians can answer that; they are weary of tropes like The Help. They know that perception can be stronger than reality, particularly for African Americans who for centuries have endured negative images. Many of these images spill over into real-life and can morph into public policy. This is along with heavy toxic doses administered on a constant basis from TV news, print, the Internet and social media.

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President Reagan’s depiction of the “welfare queen,” a Black woman who reportedly scammed a slew of government programs, led to a national dialogue on poverty and eventually the reform of “welfare as we know it.” While there are more Whites are on this program for dependent mothers with children (then and now), the policy to eviscerate it was based on the erroneous assumption that mostly Black women were gaming the system. Clearly this campaign to smear the reputation of low-income women was hyperbole and grossly unjust.

Stereotypes can box people in. They are “mental short cuts,” wrote Charles Blow, New York Times columnist. But it can reach dangerous proportions, resulting in social injustice, as with low-income women being setback financially and publicly shamed. When a young Black male is killed by police, some may conclude without knowing much about the tragedy that “he had it coming,” because so many are stereotyped as street-level criminals.

It can also influence internalized racism. For example, some African American viewers will take on negative media images of their own

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ethnic group. Some may think they can subject themselves to these regular doses and not be affected, but studies show that if you are not media literate and not alert or on-guard, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll eventually fall prey. Media literacy is the ability to separate myth from reality, sifting through and analyzing the messages that inform, entertain, market and sell.

For example, Italian-Americans take exception to the countless numbers of organized crime figures in movies and television. The Godfather trilogy, GoodFellas, Casino, Sopranos and a whole host of others have left an indelible imprint of the Italian-American as mobster. Research shows that as a result, theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re misjudged. At the same time, less media literate Italian-Americans many times take on gangster ways in real life, reinforcing the stereotype. Even during the Gangsta Rap era, Black artists took on the mobster persona.

Given the evidence, women across ethnicities have the most difficult struggle and therefore very little control of their images. But African American women are the most challenged by their oft-times unique triple oppressions of classism, racism and sexism.

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Gross disparities in leading film roles were reported in the online publication, Women in Academia, August 19, 2015. Titled: University Study Finds Lack of Gender Diversity In Hollywood’s Top-Grossing Films, researchers at the Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism at UCLA, “revealed that women are underrepresented as characters in the 100 top-grossing films for the years 2007 to 2014.” The study found that in the seven years examined, “women had less than one-third of all speaking roles. ”Of the more than 30,000 speaking roles in the 100 top-grossing films in 2014, women had only 28 percent of all characters. This was the lowest percentage in any of the seven years studied.

This is of deep concern for women attempting to practice and hone their craft; it’s an economic issue because speaking roles generally pay much more money and these actors tend to have much more clout. Also astounding was that more than 25 percent of all women with speaking roles in the 2014 top-grossing films were shown in some degree of nudity. The report noted that “movies depict female characters as younger and more sexualized than their male counterparts. This focus

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on youth and beauty restricts both the career opportunities of female actors and the range of stories that are told.”

What’s more, the report asserted that gender inequality in the film industry is not just limited to actors. In 2014, women were 1.9 percent of the directors and 11.2 percent of the writers. If this is the case for women across all ethnic groups, then Black women directors and writers are virtually absent.

Historically, stereotypes of African American women have been very damaging. To wit, the asexual, doting and oftentimes overweight maids was the currency. In other words, generally accepted as the roles for Black women. Which brings to mind Hattie McDaniel, the first African American to win an Academy Award in 1940 for best supporting actress as the mammy in Gone with the Wind. The Sapphire, another stereotype, perhaps a take-off on the image of the “strong Black woman,” but in early movies she’s an aggressive shrew usually pummeling a shiftless Black man. Later depictions are of the wanton,

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lascivious streetwalkers and let’s not forget, the welfare recipient with a bunch of unkempt kids.

Thank God for Shonda Rhimes, an African American woman who is about to kick down the door of this elite and privileged White male domain. In her infinite wisdom, she’s started to change the game. In May 2007, the TV producer and writer was named one of TIME magazine's 100 People Who Help Shape The World.

The creator of The Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and now How to Get Away with Murder, Rhimes images women and people color in a much more realistic and positive light. In How to Get Away with Murder, Davis plays a law professor at a prestigious Philadelphia law firm. She’s not over-weight and frumpy, she’s not demonized nor trivialized. Instead, she’s an attractive, well-dressed consummate professional with calm resolve.

Not only do we need more ethnically and culturally diverse actors in front of the camera, we need to look behind and beyond the camera and

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OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLACK ACTRESSES cont.

realize that media productions are more than just the celluloid characters. The industry rakes in billions of dollars, representing a juggernaut of commercial enterprises with worldwide impacts. Some refer to it as cultural imperialism.

Once Rhimes and others gain more influence within the system, movie going and surfing hundreds of TV channels, will show many more positive and culturally diverse representations. Plus if you look at the credits, which are strongly encouraged, you will find more women and people of color behind the scenes, gaining a foothold, acquiring wealth and producing more positive images.

Malaika Horne, PhD, is an academic writer and journalist.

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The

New African Paradigm Study Group (NAPSG)

is an organization dedicated to the empowerment and education of our community through book study and our lecture series. We have brought many African scholars to St. Louis to awaken our people and to get on one accord to face the challenges in our community. The NAPSG is in need of your help so we are currently seeking new members to help us continue to be able to meet the demands of our lecture series and our study group. Our study group meets every 3rd Sunday at Sabayet, 4000 Maffit, St. Louis, MO. at 4:00 p.m. Please join us on our journey for knowledge of self, our gods, and our Ancestors. Contact James Steward at (618) 977-8191 for more information. Also, Like us on FaceBook.

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Art of Healing

Your Ad or Article could be here!

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Missouri Department of Natural Resources

Scott Joplin House State Historic Site Fall Family FunDay Saturday, October 24, 2015 3:30 - 7:00 PM 2658 Delmar, St. Louis, MO 63103

Make a Rain Stick and learn how to play it with musician Glen Papa Wright and storyteller Bobby Norfolk Come out and enjoy making a musical instrument, storytelling around a bonfire, roasting hotdogs and making Smoreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s! Supplies are limited for making a rain stick so reservations are strongly recommended Please call Carlotta (314) 340-5794 for reservations

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Featured

Cartoon

Submission

-Comic Republic-

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

-Who started Comic Republic? Jide Martin, the CEO of Comic Republic. Full names of team members and their roles. 1.

Jide Martin -

Eduvie Oyaide – Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications

Wale Awelenje – Director, Comic Republic

Tobe Ezeogu –

Michael Balogun – Vice President, Comic Production, Comic Republic

Ozo Ezeogu –

Editing Director, Comic Republic

Toheeb Ipaye-

Legal Adviser, Comic Republic

Tolu Onewo –

Head, Online Operations Comic Republic

Stanley Obende- Creator, Avonome, Comic Republic

CEO Comic Republic

Chief Operating Officer and Creative Director, Comic Republic

10. Xavier Ighorodje- Writer, Avonome, Comic Republic 11. Franklin Ikechukwu - Colorist , Comic Republic Side noteAs a little boy, everyone knew Jide as one who could survive with just his pencils. He would spend hours drawing on all his school books including the walls on his room! He finally went on to become a Law graduate from the University of Ife, Nigeria, but, the drawing never stopped. The dream to begin a company focused on comics remained a close passion of his and one morning, during a conversation with a few friends, the company was shaped. The formulation of the dream and the brand identity began with Martin, Eduvie and Wale. On this journey, they met with a group of longtime friends -Michael Balogun (Balox), Ozo Ezeogu and Tobe Ezeogu who joined the dream. Toheeb Ipaye became the Legal adviser and Tolu Onewo became the Head of Online operations. Other members joined the dream along the way. -What inspired them to launch a comic start-up in Nigeria? FOR THE LOVE OF COMICS! Team Comic Republic is passionate about all things comics and believes in the power of story telling. With their stories, they aim to reprogram the values and beliefs that drive behaviour among individuals. At the time, there seemed to be a misconception among humans. Some do not believe in their power to influence their environment with their actions. Also, at the time, there were very few good quality comics out of Africa and a decline in the reading culture of comics on the continent. The team set out on an arduous task to achieve the following: 1. To create such good quality art and intriguing stories so that people will be encouraged to start reading comics again even if it meant providing the comics free. 2. To inspire a movement that drives people to believe they can influence change if they start from within. We have a cry to all of our readers to #Jointherepublic It urges all to believe you can influence positive actions then take action; we believe we are all guardians, we can all be heros. Side note: Jide Martin CEO Comic Republic on why he believes in the dream Jide would recount memories he had as a child when he would model his behaviour after superheroes often asking himself “what would superman do” when he found himself in a tight situation. His dream is for Comic Republic to become that platform that instills confidence in the average youth so that they believe that they can attain their greatest dreams if only they believed in themselves. Jide likes to say this to fellow comic artists: Dream! Go to the future, come back to the present, then make it happen. Side note: Tobe Ezeogu, Chief Operating Officer, Comic Republic on why he believes in the dream Tobe believes that one can leave a legacy, a myth behind through writing drawing and art. He wants to change the world and pg.

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believes that it doesn’t take a martyr to do it, he believes he can with the little he can do and is good at. -What exactly does the start-up do? 1.We produce comics which are currently available online at no cost to the reader, 2. We help companies extract stakeholder value for their products by using comic strips to create and implement compelling advertising strategies for their brands targeted at an internal and external audience 3. We teach art and design on our social media platforms and speak at conferences on the power of comics, self confidence and other art forms. -What values and ethics do you want to promote with your comics? We believe in the power of stories. Sometimes, people struggle with acceptance of who they are. With our stories, we want to reprogram the values and beliefs that drive behaviour among individuals. We want to inspire people to believe they can be so much more than they think if only they believe, we want to drive them to believe they have the power to influence their future. -What subtle messages can readers find in your comics? Some of our stories are focused on entertaining the audience, while others will include phrases that inspire you to think deeper about self worth. We drive the message- We can all be heros and We are all guardians, guardians of our future. Our flagship character Guardian prime focuses on motivating the reader to be better, inspiring him/her to believe he/she can be so much more than he/she imagines. -What has been the company’s biggest success thus far? We have won multiple awards which attest to the quality of our work but none of that matters as much as the fact that we have an opportunity to even do this. We have an audience that can read our comics! We have a growing fan base and their love for the republic is really something, they draw our characters all the time, send to us and are eager to promote our stories too. We will be nothing without our fans. The fact that we have them and can impact positively on them through our messaging is to us the biggest success we can think of. We will be nothing without our readers. What subtle messages can readers find in your comics? Our characters have one thing in common, they are dogged and tenacious to say the least , they never give up that’s one thing readers will note “you cant keep Guardian prime down”, “ you cant stop power boy” etc were hoping to pass that subconscious message to the readers to tell them keep fighting for what you believe in... Why did you choose to focus on women superheroes? There is a lack of female heroes in the African scene in general , girls don’t have heroines to look up to these days ,rather they have celebrities of questionable characters , what you end up with is a generic stereotype of the female gender, girls are seen to others as delicate roses and we say yes females are roses but roses have thorns and roses are tough not delicate, we wanted female characters that would become icons to the African girl growing up to give them something to aspire to that they too can be heroes and its not an all male field, its a tough audience to pitch to but we’ve got the right stuff. Information provided by: Eduvie Oyaide Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications Comic Republic Website Facebook Twitter Instagram Copyright © 2015 - All rights reserved.

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

Walking the Blue Line: A Police Officer Turned Community Activist Provides Solutions for the Racial Divide By Terrell Carter Bettie Youngs Book Publishers

$15.00 paperback

“As I recall my experiences, I find it incredulous that people in law enforcement honestly believe and say that a racial divide and racial profiling don’t exist. An officer’s mind is divided: first, between the police and the general public and second, between the police and minorities.”~ Terrell Carter Walking the Blue Line follows the author’s experiences growing up as a black child in St. Louis, MO, a racially charged city still trying to overcome its divided past, and his five year journey as a law enforcement officer which led him to reevaluate his views on citizens and police alike. Readers are taken on a compelling journey as he details personal stories of the challenges of navigating this new world, including how he had to testify against a former partner for falsifying a major drug arrest. Terrell details the thoughts and tactics of police officers based on their training in the police academy and lessons they learn on the streets and how this information can help citizens better understand why officers do what they do while still holding them accountable for protecting and serving their communities. Walking the Blue Line can be ordered from www.terrellcarter.net, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and traditional booksellers.

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WATCH NOW!

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Way

Black In Time pt . 6

COMING THIS WEEK!

Animated WEB SERIES Starring The Black Archaeologist.

http://blackarchaeologist.com/ Black Archaeologist Group Facebook

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Soul

Food

by Rev. Denita E. Robinson

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Soul Food by Rev. Denita E. Robinson Anamchara*, Are You A Change Agent?

Recently I was challenged to ponder a few questions. These questions seem to be appropriate for the place that I am currently in concerning my walk with Christ. No, my relationship is not shaky and/or wavering. However, I am at a place where I believe God is calling me to be a change agent. Not a quiet subtle change agent, either. As we coexist in this lost and dying world- a world soon to be considered "of the ages," I was drawn to an excerpt from an online devotion I subscribe to called Faithway. The excerpt from the book, The Brave Woman Who Wrote The Book That Started a Great War by Dr. Leslie Parrott, from Soul Friends**, seemingly put things in perspective. Before I proceed with my personal and intimate contemplations, I want to share a portion of the story from her book with you: One of my heroes is a saint named Hattie. A mom in her forties, Hattie was sitting in church one day, taking communion, when suddenly she had a vivid vision of an old slave being beaten to death. The vision shook her deeply, and she wept. After church she quickly walked her children home, sat down, and began to put her vision down on paper. When she ran out of paper, she kept on writing on a grocery bag. What she wrote eventually became a book, published in 1852. It was titled Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It quickly became a runaway bestseller, outpacing sales of every book in its day except the Bible. And Hattie, who is more formally known as Harriet Beecher Stowe, became “the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war,” as Abraham Lincoln himself noted...Harriet Beecher Stowe ﬁrmly believed that women had the power and the moral obligation to serve as agents of change and transformation in the world. She also believed that Christ’s love was powerful enough to take on the dark, entrenched evils of slavery. Finally, she believed that she was called to play a part in that epic battle. So she opened her home to fugitive slaves, and she opened her heart to God’s vision, and she opened her talents to God’s purposes. Hattie’s story teaches us what it looks like to pursue a long and dangerous quest, one that has the potential to change the world.

After I had finished reading the entire devotion article, I realized that one of my fundamental core beliefs rang true yet again. That belief being, I don't believe in coincidences. I am of the belief that every act, every encounter, every occurrence is always a divinely inspired incidence. Each experience should cause us to pause and reflect upon where we are and what God is saying to us in that moment relative to time. Since for me, I feel like Jacob, yet again, wrestling with the angel of the Lord. Determined, like my brother, to not let go until God blesses me. In this place, I am wrestling with God concerning the leading by the Holy Spirit to undertake a potentially difficult quest. Yet, I am determined to stay the course. Walking by faith, hand in hand 1

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Volume 2.8 October 13, 2015

SOUL FOOD cont.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 with our Sovereign God towards a known (just unknown to me fully) destination of His choosing. And though there is a little mystery that surrounds the vision that I believe he is ultimately fulﬁlling for me, I proceed throwing caution to the wind knowing that ultimately it is for my highest good and the good of the kingdom. Perhaps you are someone out there in Christianity land, who like me, you ﬁnd yourself in the very same place. As a result, I am sharing this "Soul Food" piece with you to ponder it along with me. More so, I am sharing so that you two might be encouraged that God will ultimately lead us towards the destination he has planned for us safely and with expediency. There is also something about the shared journey experience that allows us to move forward comfortably in faith knowing we are not alone. Not only is God walking with us step-by-step, but other believers who are on the same quest can connect- kindred spirits, if you will. So what are the questions I alluded to at the beginning? By now inquiring minds should want to know. Wait no further. Allow these questions to propel you towards further study, prayer, and communion with God. You will be glad you did! Until next time, happy pondering. Peace, love and Soul Food!!! 1.

Do you have the boldness and bravery to do what God is asking you to do no matter how difﬁcult or daunting the task might be?

2. What might you be called to do to change something in the world around us? 3.

If you’ve ever felt led by the Holy Spirit to undertake a potentially difﬁcult quest before, describe the experience and determine what you cleaned from that experience that will aid you and this new one.

4. How has God already used your gifts and abilities and personal dreams to make a difference in the world around you? 5. What difference might He be asking you to make next? Footnotes: *Anamchara - An ancient Gaelic phrase which literally means “soul friend.” **Excerpted with permission from Soul Friends by Dr. Leslie Parrott, copyright Zondervan.

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Black Archaeologist Group / Facebook

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Way Black In Time

t i n NOW w O DVD! on

Animated WEB SERIES Starring The Black Archaeologist.

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Black In Time pt . 6

COMING THIS WEEK!

Animated WEB SERIES Starring The Black Archaeologist.

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OPPORTUNITIES

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The Bernie Hayes Show Talk and interviews about affairs of the day with a St. Louis slant. The Bernie Hayes Show can be seen: Friday’s at 9 A.M. Saturday’s at 10:00 P.M. Sunday’s at 5:30 P.M.

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Closing in on my goal for “Fire this Time” - if everyone would do two things 1) support the making of this film with just a $20.00 donation and 2) encourage 2 of your friends to do the same - it will allow me to license some additional footage and photos - you can donate now by going here: http://www.cmt-tv.org/#!join-the-team/c1195 CMT-TV.org is a 501c3 non-profit organizations thus your donations are tax deductible - thank you - the making of this film will help me attract more resources which will allow real community filmmaking in STL -Phillip W. Johnson Producer of the #Ferguson Film Fire this Time

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CAREERS

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A big Thank You to our CONTRIBUTERS