Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Iraq Prez Maliki coming to US for more weapons in war with Sunni insurgents

Senators Warn Obama Before Iraq Leader’s Visit

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON — As Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq headed to Washington on Tuesday, an influential group of senators sent a strongly worded letter to President Obama warning that Mr. Maliki’s “mismanagement” of Iraqi politics had contributed to the surge of violence there.

Nabil Al-Jurani/Associated Press

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq is to meet with President Obama Friday.

Mr. Maliki, who is scheduled to meet with Mr. Obama on Friday, has signaled that he wants the United States to provide sophisticated weapons, including Apache attack helicopters, so that the Iraqi government can fight Al Qaeda in Iraq and other insurgent groups.

The letter, signed by ranking Democratic as well as Republican lawmakers, sought to put Mr. Maliki on notice that continued American support for Iraq would depend heavily on his willingness to share power with his nation’s Sunni and Kurdish minorities.

Mr. Maliki, a Shiite politician who became prime minister in 2006 with the support of the American ambassador to Baghdad, has often been accused of being sectarian and authoritarian. Those tendencies, the senators wrote, made Iraq more fertile ground for insurgents who have been mounting attacks with increasing frequency.

“This failure of governance is driving many Sunni Iraqis into the arms of Al Qaeda in Iraq and fueling the rise of violence,” the letter said.

Earlier on Tuesday, two of the senators spoke angrily in separate interviews about Mr. Maliki’s failure to unify the competing factions in Iraq. “He’s got a lot of work to do in terms of pulling together diverse elements of his country,” said Senator Carl Levin, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Armed Services Committee. “He’s not done a particularly good job of it.”

Mr. Levin also criticized Mr. Maliki for acquiescing in, if not facilitating, Iran’s efforts to supply weapons to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, using flights through Iraqi airspace. “They’ve allowed overflights, Iranian planes, to supply Syria,” Mr. Levin said.

Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, the senior Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, which is to meet with Mr. Maliki on Wednesday, was even more critical of the Iraqi leader. “What he’s done is create a situation where the population is more accepting of what Al Qaeda is doing there because of his lack of inclusiveness,” Mr. Corker said.

The other senators who signed the letter were John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans who have long taken a strong interest in Iraq; Robert Menendez, the New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the Senator Foreign Relations Committee; and James M. Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who is the ranking minority member of the Armed Services Committee.

In expressing alarm over the rising number of bombings and the deteriorating security situation in Iraq, the senators also appeared to chide Mr. Obama for not being more outspoken about developments there.

The letter emphasized that Mr. Maliki’s visit was an opportunity for Mr. Obama to “re-engage with the American people about the continuing strategic importance of Iraq.”

The last American troops left Iraq at the end of 2011 under an agreement signed by President George W. Bush and Mr. Maliki. The United States and Iraq have signed an agreement calling for cooperation on security and economic issues. But critics say that such cooperation has never fully developed.

In their letter, the senators urged the president to step up American efforts to help Iraq’s security force to fight terrorist groups, especially through the increased sharing of intelligence.

The senators stopped short of saying that such support should be withheld if Mr. Maliki did not adopt a more inclusive approach in governing. But they warned that the degree of American support for security assistance and arms sales would be influenced by Mr. Maliki’s “governance strategy.”

A major concern of many lawmakers is that American weapons supplied to the Iraqi government might be used by Mr. Maliki to crack down on his political opponents.

Mr. Maliki is leading a large delegation to Washington and is also scheduled to meet with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and other senior officials.

In his remarks in Baghdad before flying to Washington, Mr. Maliki made clear that his priority was to secure support for sale of American arms and other forms of security assistance. “We will discuss security and intelligence in addition to arms needed by the military to fight terrorism,” he said.

Chinese Muslims crash Tiananmen Square

Fiery SUV crash in Tiananmen Square may have been suicide

attack by ethnic Uighurs

AFP/Getty Images - Police cars block off the roads leading into Tiananmen Square as smoke rises after a vehicle crashed in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing on Monday.

By William Wan, Published: October 29

BEIJING — Authorities were investigating Tuesday whether ethnic minorities from China’s troubled

Xinjiang region were involved in a fiery vehicle crash in Tiananmen Square the day before

that killed at least five people.

In a notice sent to hotels in Beijing, police ordered hotel staff to search for “suspicious” guests and

vehicles related to Monday’s incident and specifically named two residents from counties in western

China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, according to state media and reports quoting hotel staff.

(The Washington Post)

Plato Negro on the reactionary so-called Negro

Marvin X speaking in St. Louis at the book fair of Akhbar Muhammad

Plato Negro on The Reactionary so-called Negro

Why does the so-called Negro react to everything in the world? Why cannot he/she learn how to be proactive, to originate an agenda and stay on focus no matter what else goes on around him? Remember that old civil rites song, "I Shall Not Be Moved." And the other tune, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round."

These are songs of the warrior, not the supplicant, and until we dawn the persona of the warrior we shall continue chasing fires, from coast to coast, like chickens with our heads cut off. What about a general action plan for the next one hundred years--our enemy has one for us, to keep us oppressed for eternity, but what is our plan, for then it doesn't matter what is his plan.

But if we have no plan, then we shall surely follow his, whether it is expending our energy on a white woman for president or a white Negro--this has nothing to do with the ultimate national aspirations of forty million people. It is about submission to the national agenda of white supremacists and their collaborators.

The Democrats and Republicans are both white supremacists who will ultimately attempt to maintain white privilege and power around the world, utilizing the power of North American Africans when it suits the agenda of white supremacy—forget about the dream of democracy for it only has relevance when it can be used as a subterfuge for maintaining and extending white supremacy at home and around the world. One need only take a photo of the US Congress and Supreme Court to understand this is a white man's land, no matter what the demographics say or suggest for the future. Mutabaruka told you don't stay in a white man's land too long.We are caught in a class war where color makes no difference. There shall be blacks as dangerous to our national health as whites, yet they shall be presented as our saviors and we shall go for the sham liberators just as we would go for fried ice cream or duped into purchasing the Brooklyn Bridge. Wake up, North American Africans and get a healing. Your slothful thinking has you going backward into neo-slavery. You are being attacked by white supremacy from Jena, LA to West Virginia to Yuba City, CA, mainly because you have been lulled to sleep with nursery rhymes of rappers and pseudo prosperity sermons from preachers with more dramatic techniques than Shakespeare. You claim to be mature adults and elders with wisdom, yet you appear to suffer arrested development, for your pants sag on your behinds just like your children, adult women have tattoos above the crack of their behinds just as their daughters.

Adult men drive cars and SUVs with wheels spinning backwards as do their children and the cars of adults play rap songs unfit for adults with mature minds we would expect to be listening to Miles, Coltrane and Charlie Parker.

Thus, you are part of the problem rather than the solution. So we wonder from whom might a solution derive since naturally and traditionally adults are expected to rule their communities. But adults and elders in the North American African communities are terrified of their children, refuse to speak with them or intervene while they practice mayhem and behavior fit for animals. We refuse to hug a thug even when the thug is our own sons and daughters, nephews, nieces and neighbors. Even when they go to jail, the sons of most men are left to the tender love of their mothers, for the men abandon their sons to the criminal justice system or are themselves victims as well. And again, reaction is the order of the day, for thinking is confined to the box of Americana, thus the adults in the hood rarely consider taking total and absolute authority over their community, excluding the police, politicians and religious leaders who are mainly agents of pharaoh, Masonic neophytes duty bound to let the blind stay blind. But no matter how long it takes, no matter how long the adults linger in passivity and Hamletic indecision, the ultimate solution is for elders to step to the front of the line and represent, take total control over the social life of their community. They must form elder councils of radical men and women who are proactive with ideas fit for the new millennium, integrated with the new technology and wisdom from progressive elements of the global community. Ideas such as entrepreneurship and micro credit must be presented to our youth so they can envision solutions to their economic woes other than drugs, pimping, prostitution and murder. http://www.blackbirdpressnews.blogspot.com/

Dialogue on the role of the Poet and Poetry

Poetic Mission: A Dialogue on the Role of the Poet and Poetry
by Rudolph Lewis

Editor, Chickenbones, A Journal for Literary & Artistic African-American Themes Overview
Recently (24 January 2009), Marvin X, a well known writer and co-founder of the Black Arts Movement (BAM) sent out by email a provocative piece titled "Poetic Mission." On the surface the concern was the controversial investigation of the murder of the Oakland journalist Chauncey Bailey. But "Poetic Mission" goes farther and makes an argument about the role of the poet and poetry.
Here are some excerpts from "Poetic Mission.":
The mission of the poet is to express the mind of a people, a culture, a civilization. He extends the myths and rituals, taking them to the outer limits like a Coltrane or Eric Dolphy tune, stretching, transcending all that is, was and will be. His tool is language, from which he cannot be limited by political correction or submission to the culture police on the left or the right.
The poet is a healer in the time of sickness, inspiring wholeness and celebrating the positive. He must point out contradictions and lies. . . .
The poet's mission was well defined in Mao's classic essay Talks on Art and Literature at Yenen Forum. The poet is either part of the problem or part of the solution—is he with the oppressor or the oppressed? Or we can recall the words of ancestor Paul Robeson, "The artist must become a freedom fighter." For whom does he write? Does he write to satisfy Pharaoh and his minions, or is his mission to liberate the suffering masses from ignorance, although he should never consider himself superior, since the teacher always learns from his students. If he listens, the poets will come to know the pain and trauma of his people and his duty is to relieve the pain and trauma with visions, plans and programs for the collective good.

The poetic challenge is to take people to new vistas of consciousness that reveal the soul, individual and communal, which are one. Language is a communal experience that is not the property of the poet. He can add to it with his imagination, but is there imagination without myth-ritual? What is the source of imagery except the collective myth of a culture or civilization.
In time of struggle and crisis, the poet must become a propagandist who whips defeat into victory, sadness into joy. Truth is paramount—there are lives at stake, hence this is no game, no job for money, no position for public adoration, no ego trip. Call it revolution, change of the most radical form. Marvin X, "Poetic Mission." 24 January 2009
Reading Marvin's "Poetic Mission" provoked a slew of questions, which I emailed to him and others in my address book. Poets Jerry Ward, Jr., Mary Weems, and C. Liegh McInnis (with a poem) responded. Marvin responded to a number of my questions, directly. Below I will I place them in a Q & A format. After which, I will present the other responses.
Rudy: Maybe the subject should be "poetic missions." The heart of the problem for the poet is to discover what is the Mission, isn't it, if there is such a thing?
Marvin: Everyone, whether poet, scientist, lover, street sweeper, dope fiend, must ultimately define his/her life’s mission or purpose. This is why brother Ptah suggested and I included the 13th Step in my How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy.
What is the mission of the poet—words can kill or heal. Sonia Sanchez says, “Will your book free us?” Apparently not since the stores are full of black books and we still ain’t free.
The dope fiend must come to understand recovery is only a step—once clean and sober then what? Only to sit in meetings claiming sobriety while still drunk on recovery—so after recovery, then discovery of one’s mission.
Remember that Nancy Wilson song, “I Never Been to Me”? So we can be poet, mother, wife, husband, yet never discover our true mission in life, and even when we discover our mission, we may be too fearful to execute it.
Rudy: Is the audience "the people" or is it the poet's sense of the people? Or is the poet's audience, his choir? Is the poet really a "truth sayer"?

Marvin: The people are real live people who we should encounter in their/our daily round, thus we hear their cries if we listen, for they will tell us all, if we listen. It is not some echo in our head, life is beyond imagination (the poet’s sense of the people). They will tell you their joy and suffering as they have told me while I was “selling Obama T shirts. The “people” told me again and again the ritual they planned for inauguration day, they told me their joy and happiness, no matter what intellectuals think. So it is my job to express their joy in this world of sadness and dread.
It was the same with the murder of Oscar Grant here in Oakland (the young black man murdered on New Year’s Day by the BART police as he lay on his stomach). The people told me of losing their loved ones to homicide, yet received no attention because it was a black on black crime. They said even the police showed no real concern. Thus we must be guilty of selective suffering. If a white man kills us, we protest. When we kill us, nothing happens. The murderer still walks the streets and everybody knows he’s the killer, but we say nothing out of fear, so families suffer grief and trauma alone, in silence. These people are not some abstraction, some imaginary sense of the people, not the poet’s choir. The poet is either about truth or he is about lies, the choice is his.
Rudy: Does not the poet often obfuscate (or exaggerate) the truth, maybe for good reasons, maybe for awful consequences? I suspect that neither poems nor poets have a special Mission. It is a romantic notion that has outlived its times.
Marvin: All art is exaggeration. What is music but the exaggeration of natural sounds, birds, bees, water, wind, rain, thunder. The poet often takes poetic license with events, especially for dramatic effect. The poet, the musician, the painter must decide to join the revolution, as they did during the 60s and earlier, throughout time. This is not a romantic notion. How can the conscious poet ignore the suffering of his people when he sees they are ignorant, suffering poverty and disease? The poet must decide to aid them or leave them alone and praise the king, pharaoh or whomever he decides to clown for, shuffle and dance. For thousands of years the poetic mission has been to cry for freedom and justice. We know the source of art for art’s sake—simply art of the master class, the rulers and oppressors who pass by the man on the roadside, robbed and half dead.
Rudy: Poems can be sledge hammers (hurtful) or they can be subtle (very subtle), like Elizabeth Alexander's inaugural poem, Praise song for the day? Which ones indeed carry more truth? Which ones are more effective in getting us where we want to go?
Marvin: As is well known, my style is the sledge hammer (Kalamu ya Salaam) or venom (Dr. Julia Hare). The youth on the streets of Oakland who have read my books say, “You’re very blunt.” Indeed, it is a style reflecting my lifestyle (you’re too rough to be a pimp, said a prostitute).

And yet I am in awe of the feminine style. It is so gentle, subtle, smooth like a razor cutting to the heart. I am amazed at the feminine approach or style, especially in writing. But Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem was too soft for me, bored me to tears. Alice Walker’s as well. Now the poetic message from Rev. Lowery was great. It moved the soul, my soul, it had the language of the people, not that academic bullshit language of Alexander’s. See my “A Day We Never Thought” on the inauguration. But all these poems are a matter of style, not truth. Some like it soft, some like it hard. Some like Miller Lite, some like OLE English 800. We can get to the truth many ways, just get there.
Rudy: Is poetry the same as propaganda, which some associate with outright lies and distortions? How do we reconcile the two?

Marvin: All art is propaganda of one class or another, one group or another. Alexander’s poem is bourgeoisie art to me. Would I be allowed to read my poems on such an occasion? The bourgeoisie runs from me on sight, no need to say boo. Although the Oakland Post Newspaper claimed they were going to run “A Day We Never Thought.” I did not try to be the sledge hammer with this poem. I wanted to express the joy of the ancestors, the living and the yet unborn. Oh, Happy Day. Finally, the poet is not limited to one approach. He is able to don the feminine persona when necessary. It is his duty to know the spirit of male and female, and the non-gender of the spirit world?

Marvin: The mission of the Black Arts Movement was truth. There is still truth in the BAM poems, yes, forty years later. There is truth in Baraka’s Toilet, Dutchman, and the poems of Nikki and Sonia. Yes, these poets might say their poems are not relevant but they are not truthful. The Dutchman is real. “If Bessie Smith had killed some white people, she wouldn’t need to sing the blues. She could have talked very straight and plain about the world—no metaphor, no innuendo....”
And Sonia’s lines are still relevant even if she finds them distasteful, such as “What a white woman got except her white pussy?”

Are the above words youth or truth? Of course time causes a maturation of thought. All the things I thought at twenty, some of them I no longer think, but there is still much truth in my early writings. Khalid Muhammad (RIP) used to tell me to hell with my current writings, he loved my early books such as Fly To Allah and Woman, Man’s Best Friend. These are the books that awakened his consciousness, he told me more than once.

Rudy: As you know many of the poems of the BAM period are relics and say more about the mindset of the period or the poet, for instance, some of the poems of Nikki Giovanni or poems of Sonia Sanchez. The poets themselves might argue that they are not relevant for today. Or they would denounce or apologize for them as the expression of youth, and not really the Truth.

Baraka, the man who taught me how to say motherfucker, now objects to use of the term, except in a moment of passion. As for myself, all words are holy and sacred, none are obscene. What is obscene, saying motherfucker or actually fucking your mother, sister, daughter, son? There are those persons here in the Bay who object to my language, yet they have been indicted for incest and child molestation.
Simply because the BAM poets have reached old age does not negate the truth of our early writings. Of course the rappers took our language to another level that may indeed transcend truth for pussy and dick nonsense.

Rudy: Is poetry not also a personal statement that says more about the person at the time of writing, than it does the Truth? Take for instance your poem in response to the slaughter in Gaza.

Marvin: My poem “Who Are These Jews” is basic truth. And if it’s true for me, it’s true for you. But the essence of the poem was said by Jesus 2000 years ago, John 8:44. Was Jesus lying then, am I lying now? At what point do we come out of denial and admit we got some devils up in here? Why should Hamas recognize the existence of Israel, does Israel recognize the existence of Hamas, the democratic victory of Hamas?

Rudy: How do the "people" really know when the poem or the poet has really failed to speak to the real needs of the people?

Marvin: Are the people deaf, dumb and blind? Have you not read a poem or book that changed your life? The people tell me all the time my writings transform their lives. Truth transforms, lies
do not, not for the better. Lies lead to destruction, truth to construction of people and society.

Responses

THE TRUTH is not an entity but a conflicted set of conditions, phenomena which our human minds might envision or speculate about but never fully grasp. In that sense, poetry seeks to represent an insight about a truth. What is made of a truth in a poem varies among readers and most certainly between different generations of readers, particularly if the poem is topical.
You are right in suggesting that we ought to talk about the missions of poetry. When I write a poem, I do have a mission in my head, but my readers may or may not perceive what that mission was intended to be or to do. Knowing that poems have both limits and unforeseen consequences, I believe my work is designed to move readers to have fresh thoughts. The act of reading a poem involves change, of course,

but whether the reader gets the point is a matter of chance.

—Jerry Ward

Poetry is an art and like all art its success/impact/power is up to the interpretation of each audience member who engages it. What constitutes a good poem or a powerful poem or a truth telling poem varies based upon interpretation . . . there is no one meaning, no one way of expressing whatever inspires a poet to write.

Also, poets write for a variety of purposes . . . some, like me (Harlem Renaissance poets, Black Arts Movement Poets, Socially conscious Spoken Word artists), use our poetic voices most often as political acts to speak out against the injustices of the day, to speak truth to power—historically, this is one of the reasons many poets have been considered dangerous to various power regimes resulting in imprisonment, exile, and censorship.

Some poets believe the role of the poet is to make the mundane memorable, to record various degrees of beauty based upon their interpretation of what that is, to describe the world they are living in for future generations, without regard for politics, protest, or social justice.
Some poets believe it's all about performance, giving the audience what they want to hear for popularity purposes, to win Slam poetry competitions.
Some poets are introspective to the point of confessing, zeroing in on their personal trials, tribulations, and successes.

I am not one to publicly dis a poet because a poem that says nothing or little to me, could mean the world to someone else who is able to step inside the poem and make meaning based upon the experiences they bring to what the poet has written. A poem that doesn't make me feel anything, though it may be technically flawless, is not a good poem to me, but—
There is no one way to be a poet, there is no one purpose, there's only folks who have a gift for metaphor, simile, rhyme, rhythm, imagery, trope, allegory, for seeing the world through a particular lens—doing our best to do what we do because we have to . . .

--Mary Weems

“What Good Are Poems?”
by C. Liegh McInnis

Can a poem be as effective as a .357?
Can the images of a poem spray buck shot holes into the body of a greenback stuffed sheet wearing shoat?
Can a poem be thrown as a brick through the window of a grocery store so that we may pillage and plunder its shelves for food for the hungry?
Can a poem be laid on top of a poem,
be laid on top of a poem, be laid on top of a poem until we have built a shelter for the homeless?
Does a poem need a million dollar war chest
or a foundation grant to be mightier than the sword?
What good does a poem do a spoiled, bloated belly?

Can a poem clothe the naked?
Can a poem improve an ACT score?
Can a poem pay the rent?
Can poems assassinate Negro turncoats who have sold their souls to racist rags?
Can poems cut short the lives of serpentine superintendents who slyly suffocate African babies in Euro-excrement disguised as Caucasian curriculums?
Poems are the sperms of revolution.
We need poets to stop adding extra syrup and saccharine to their sonnets so as to appease the pale palates of people who have not the stomach for the truth.
We need poets to stop
masturbating away their talents into literary napkins. We need poets to start impregnating thoughts of Black magnolias bursting through white cement
into the minds of Raven virgin souls who without it toil in the reproductive process of self-aversion.
Poems are the sperms of revolution.
Are you making love to your people,
or are you fornicating away your existence?

Imported Contaminated Spice ain't nothin' nice!

12 Percent of U.S. Spice Imports Contaminated, F.D.A. Finds

By GARDINER HARRIS

Published: October 30, 2013

NEW DELHI — About 12 percent of spices brought to the United States are contaminated with insect parts, whole insects, rodent hairs and other things, according to an analysis of spice imports by federal food authorities.

The finding by the Food and Drug Administration is part of a comprehensive look at the safety of spice imports that has been years in the making. The federal authorities also found that nearly 7 percent of spice imports examined by federal inspectors were contaminated with salmonella, a toxic bacteria that can cause severe illness in humans.

The shares of imported spices contaminated with insect parts and salmonella were twice those found in other types of imported food, federal food officials said.

The agency’s findings “are a wake-up call” to spice producers, said Jane M. Van Doren, a food and spice official at the F.D.A. “It means: ‘Hey, you haven’t solved the problems.'”

The agency labeled spice contamination “a systemic challenge” and said most of the insects found in spices were kinds that thrive in warehouses and other storage facilities, suggesting that the industry’s problems result not from poor harvesting practices but poor storage and processing.

John Hallagan, a spokesman for the American Spice Trade Association, said Wednesday that he had not seen the report so could not comment on it. But spice manufacturers have argued in the past that food manufacturers often treat imported spices before marketing them, so F.D.A. findings of contamination levels in its import screening program do not mean that spices sold to consumers are dangerous.

F.D.A. inspectors have found that some spices that claim to have been treated are contaminated nonetheless. And the high levels of filth from insects and rodents is a problem that is not easily resolved because, unlike with salmonella contamination, simply cooking or heating the spices will not rid the products of the problem. Insects can also be a source of salmonella contamination.

What share of the nearly 1.2 million annual salmonella illnesses in the United States result from contaminated spices is unclear, officials said. Fewer than 2,000 people had their illnesses definitively tied to contaminated spices from 1973 to 2010, and most people eat spices in small quantities. But people often fail to remember eating spices when asked what foods might have sickened them, so problems related to spices could be seriously underreported, officials said.

Recent legislation in the United States grants the F.D.A. the power to refuse entry of foods that the agency even suspects might be contaminated — strong leverage to demand changes in harvesting, handling and manufacturing practices in foreign countries.

Spice imports from Mexico and India have been found to have the highest rate of contamination. Nearly one-quarter of the spices, oils and food colorings used in the United States comes from India, according to the F.D.A.

The F.D.A. commissioner, Margaret A. Hamburg, had intended to visit India this fall and meet with spice industry officials to discuss the agency’s concerns about spice safety, but the government shutdown delayed her plans, she said. Indian spice officials are offering incentives to get farmers to change some traditional harvest and handling practices that could lead to contamination.

Michael R. Taylor, deputy commissioner for foods at the F.D.A., said that the spice industry needs to clean up poor storage practices, a difficult effort.

“There is no magic wand for any of the problem we’re addressing,” Mr. Taylor said.

From the archives: Journal of Pan African Studies Poetry issue, Guest editor, Marvin X

ARCHIVE ISSUE

Volume 4 • Number 2 • 2010

This special issue of The Journal of Pan African Studies is edited by guest editor Marvin X and dedicated to Dingane aka Jose Goncalves, the publisher and editor of the Journal of Black Poetry, which has published some 500 poets.

Groundation

● JPAS: Dedicated to Dingane, Jose Goncalves
by Marvin X
[ view PDF ]

● The Poets
by Marvin X
[ view PDF ]

● Letters to the Editor
[ view PDF ]

● Journal of Black Poetry Poets: Some of the 500
[ view PDF ]

● Dingane Joe Goncalves, The Journal of Black Poetry & Small Non-Commercial Black Journals
by Rudolph Lewis
[ view PDF ]

In My Negritude

● Shaggy Flores, Ras Griot, Phavia Kujichagulia, Chinwe Enemchukwu, L. E. Scott, Rodney D. Coates, J. Vern Cromartie, Dike Okoro, Neal E. Hall, Marvin X, Mohja Kahf, Ayodele Nzingha, Askia M. Toure, Michael Simanga, Amiri Baraka, Kalamu ya Salaam, Kola Boof, Louis Reyes, Rivera, Aries Jordan, Ptah Allah El, and Hettie V. Williams
[ view PDF ]

● Teaching Diaspora Literature: Muslim American Literature as an Emerging Field
by Mohja Kahf
[ view PDF ]

● Mother Earth Responds by Askia Toure
reviewed by Kamaria Muntu
[ view PDF ]

●Tainted Soul by T. Ptah Mitchell
reviewed by Zulu King
[ view PDF ]

The Whirlwind

● Tracey Owens Patton, devorah major, Anthony Mays, Bruce George, Jeanette Drake, Itibari M. Zulu, Renaldo Manuel Ricketts, Nandi Comer, Al Young, Ghasem Batamuntu, Mona Lisa Saloy, Eugene B. Redmond, Fritz Pointer, Gwendolyn Mitchell, Felix Orisewike Sylvanus, Rudolph Lewis, Kamaria Muntu, Ed Bullins, Mabel Mnensa, Kwan Booth, and Tureeda Mikell
[ view PDF ]

● Poetic Mission: A Dialogue on the Role of the Poet and Poetry
by Rudolph Lewis (dialogue team: Marvin X, Jerry Ward, Mary Weems, and C. Leigh McInnis)
[ view PDF ]

● The Poetic Mission: Art II: Reviewing a Life, A Calling
by Haki R. Madhubuti
[ view PDF ]

Amour of Ancestors

● Everett Hoagland, Charles Blackwell, Jacqueline Kibacha, John Reynolds III, Darlene Scott, Jimmy Smith Jr., Sam Hamud, Opal Palmer Adisa, Amy ‘Aimstar’ Andrieux, Lamont b. Steptoe, Avotcja Jiltonilro, Anthony Spires, Benecia Blue, Neil Callender, Tanure Ojaide, Pious Okoro, Tony Medina, Dr. Ja A. Jahannes, Brother Yao, Zayad Muhammad, Nykimbe Broussard, Kilola Maishya, Niyah X, Adrienne N. Wartts, Greg Carr, Darlene Roy, Tantra Zawadi, Ishmael Reed, Quincy Scott Jones, Bob McNeil, Ariel Pierson, Marie Rice, Yvonne Hilton, Bolade Akintolayo, Latasha Diggs, Felton Eaddy, and B. Sharise Moore
[ view PDF ]

Baraka, Politics and News

● Medical Mythologyby Ramal Lamar
[ view PDF ]

● Qaddafy’s Apology for Arab Slavery: A Dialogue Between Poets by Rudolph Lewis, Sam Hamud, and Kola Boof
[ view PDF ]

● Prize and Award: Chinua Achebe and Haki R. Madhubuti
[ view PDF ]

● Two Poets in Oakland: Ishmael Reed and Marvin Xby Ishmael Reed and Marvin X
[ view PDF ]

● A Pan African Dialogue on Cuba: From Black Bird Pressby Dead Prez, Carlos Moore, Pedro de la Hoz, and North American African Activist, Intellectuals and Artist
[ view PDF ]

● Black Arts West Celebrates Amiri Baraka at 75a photos essay by Kamau Amen-Ra
[ view PDF ]

● Amiri Baraka Entertains SF: ‘Lowku’ versus Haiku Revives Fillmore Spirit by Lee Hubbard and Marvin X
[ view PDF ]

Palestinian prisoners Go, Jewish settlements Grow!

Israel releases 26 Palestinian prisoners as part of deal for peace talks

Joy in West Bank and Gaza Strip as Israel releases 26 prisoners as part of deal brokered by John Kerry

Palestinian prisoner Najeh Meqbel (R) is welcomed by his mother and family members after he was released from an Isreali prison, in the al-Aroub refugee camp, just north of the West Bank town of Hebron Photo: ABED AL HASHLAMOUN/EPA Israel released 26 Palestinian prisoners, as part of a U.S.-brokered agreement that restarted peace talks with the Palestinians over the summer. It is the second of four planned releases of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in the coming months

Israel released 26 Palestinian prisoners, as part of a U.S.-brokered agreement that restarted peace talks with the Palestinians over the summer. It is the second of four planned releases of the longest-serving Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in the coming months

Israel has freed 26 Palestinian prisoners, the second of four batches to be released as part of a deal that set in motion the current Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

^{Hazem Shobair is welcomed home by people in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip (Reuters)}

The decision to release the 26 has triggered anguish and anger in Israel, where many view the men as terrorists who have committed grisly crimes against Israelis. But jubilant celebrations kicked off in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where the prisoners are seen as heroes who fought for independence, and were received by their families and Palestinian leaders.

The release was part of an agreement brokered by US Secretary of State John Kerry that brought Israel and the Palestinians back to the table for peace talks that had been paralyzed since 2008. In all, 104 convicts are to be released in four batches over the coming months.

In the West Bank and Gaza, the mood was boisterous as hundreds of relatives and well-wishers welcomed the prisoners home, after many had spent more than 20 years behind bars.

^{Mohammed Sabbagh, accompanied by his family members and relatives, speaks to the crowd at his home in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin after his release (AP)}

Throngs of people rushed toward the prisoners as they were freed, hoisting them on their shoulders, waving Palestinian flags and bopping to blaring music. In Gaza, where five of the prisoners were released, relatives held signs that read "we will never forget our heroes." The 21 prisoners released to the West Bank were to be greeted at a welcoming ceremony later by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Today is a day of joy for the family and for all of Palestine," said Tayser Shubair, waiting earlier for his brother's release in Gaza. His brother Hazem was jailed in 1994 for the death of an Israeli, according to the Israeli Prison Service. "My brother is a freedom fighter and we are proud of him and we thank the president for his effort to get him out."

^{Released Palestinian prisoner Hazza Saadi kisses his mother upon returning to his home in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin (AP)}

Thousands of Palestinians have been held in Israeli prisons since Israel's capture of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war, many jailed on charges ranging from throwing rocks to killing civilians in bombings, shootings and other attacks.

The fate of the prisoners is a deeply emotional issue in Palestinian society. After decades of fighting Israel, many families have had a member imprisoned and the release of prisoners has been a longstanding demand.

Among those going free are people jailed in connection to the killings of Israelis including a reservist and a Nazi death camp survivor, according to the list provided by Israel's prison service. Many of the killings occurred before the beginning of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in 1993.

Israel's Supreme Court earlier rejected an appeal that sought to cancel the prisoner release. An organization of bereaved families behind the appeal has said it fears the prisoners, all convicted in connection to the deaths of Israelis, will return to violence once freed.

^{Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (right) holds hands with a freed prisoner during a welcome ceremony at the Palestinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah (AP)}

Highlighting the opposition to the move, some 50 Israelis protested outside the West Bank prison where the inmates were held ahead of the release. They held signs reading "death to murderers" and burned keffiyehs, traditional Palestinian headscarves. Over a thousand people demonstrated against the release on Monday.

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told Israeli TV he felt for the bereaved families but that the decision to free the prisoners came from a "responsibility to guide the state of Israel according to a long-term strategy."

Israel has a long history of lopsided prisoner exchanges with its Arab adversaries. But the most recent release appeared especially charged because Israel is receiving little in return except for the opportunity to conduct negotiations that few people believe will be successful.

To make up for the release prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced 1,500 new homes in the east Jerusalem settlement of Ramat Shlomo.

Israel captured east Jerusalem during the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the international community.

In August, Israel announced plans for more than 2,000 new settler homes in tandem with the first prisoner release, angering the Palestinians.

Edited by Bonnie Malkin