The Black Arts Movement Business District of Oakland, CA is established in loving memory
of
ancestor Amiri Baraka, chief architect of the Black Arts Movement, the
most radical literary and artistic movement in American history. Above
art by Emory Douglas, Black Panther Party Minister of Culture.
The Movement
Newsletter of the Black Arts Movement
Business District, Oakland, California
July/August Edition, 2016
www.themovementnewsletter.blogspot.com
Business District, Oakland, California
July/August Edition, 2016
www.themovementnewsletter.blogspot.com
Movement Staff
Publisher Marvin X
Publisher Marvin X
Managing Editor, Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD
Associate Editor Aries Jordan
Design Editor Adam Turner
Contributing writers
Ishmael Reed
Alice Walker
Ishmael Reed
Alice Walker
Kujichagulia
Douglas Allen Taylor
Kim McMillan
Lynette McElhaney
Kadesh Carter
Zahieb Mwongozi
Ayodele Nzinga
Aries Jordan
Marvin X
Zahieb Mwongozi
Ayodele Nzinga
Aries Jordan
Marvin X
The Movement print version made possible by the generous contribution of Paul Cobb and the Post News Group.
CONTENTS
1. Young African Leadership Fellowship, City of Oakland
2. Review: The Grace Jones Project by Kadesh Carter
3.Gentrification by Kujichagulia
4. Working on a theory of Orlando by Douglas Allen Taylor
5. Jobs and Justice, the Vote on Coal by Lynette McElhaney
6. Black Arts Movement Theatre, University of California, Merced
by Kim McMillan
7. Photo Essay by Kamau Amen Ra (RIP)
8. Dr. Ayodele Nzinga replies to Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney
9. Notes on the BAMBD from Associate Editor, Aries Jordan
10. Poem: Times of Fire by Ayodele Nizinga
11. Speech by Jesse Williams at BET Awards
12. Alice Walker poem to Jesse Williams
13. Ishmael Reed reviews musical Hamilton
14. Marvin X on writers in anthology Black Hollywood unChained rock SF Main Library discussion
15. Zahieb Mwongozi on Lines in the Sand: Rebecca Kaplan and the cowardly council
by Kim McMillan
7. Photo Essay by Kamau Amen Ra (RIP)
8. Dr. Ayodele Nzinga replies to Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney
9. Notes on the BAMBD from Associate Editor, Aries Jordan
10. Poem: Times of Fire by Ayodele Nizinga
11. Speech by Jesse Williams at BET Awards
12. Alice Walker poem to Jesse Williams
13. Ishmael Reed reviews musical Hamilton
14. Marvin X on writers in anthology Black Hollywood unChained rock SF Main Library discussion
15. Zahieb Mwongozi on Lines in the Sand: Rebecca Kaplan and the cowardly council
Black Arts Movement Business District
Calendar of Events
Calendar of Events
June 30 Theatre and Social Responsibility Plays at U.C. Merced
June thru September 18, Grace Jones Project, MOAB, San Francisco
July 1, BAOBAB, Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses, Roof Top, 5-8PM
July 1, Kev Choice CD release party, Yoshi's Oakland, 8PMJuly 3 thru September Poetry in The Park, Oakland
July
3, Book Discussion of Black Hollywood unChained, San Francisco Public
Library, 100 Larkin Street, Civic Center, San Francisco
July 3, Mandela Food Cooperative Festival, West Oakland, 7th Street, across from
West Oakland BART
July 6 thru 31, Fences by August Wilson, California Shakespeare Theatre
July 7 thru 17 The Black Woman is god Exhibit, SOMA, San Francisco
July 15, Memorial for Kamau Amen Ra, Eastside Arts, 23rd and International, OaklandJuly 3, Mandela Food Cooperative Festival, West Oakland, 7th Street, across from
West Oakland BART
July 6 thru 31, Fences by August Wilson, California Shakespeare Theatre
July 7 thru 17 The Black Woman is god Exhibit, SOMA, San Francisco
July 16 Tribe City Festival, San Francisco, Hunters Point
July 22, Jill Scott
July 23, 25th Oakland Black Expo, Saturday, Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza
July 24 The Art of Rap Warfield, San Francisco
July 26, City of Oakland BAMBD Cultural Keepers, Tuesday, 6-8pm, Oak Center Cultural Center, 14th and Adeline
August 28 Snoop Dog, Concord PavilanSeptember 2, Ja Rule, Warfield
August 28-September 4, Black Arts Movement Theatre Festival, Sept, Flight Deck Theatre, Broadway, Oakland
July 30 New Edition, Concord Pavilion September 4, 6th Annual Pan African Family Reunion, Mosswood Park, Oakland
September 9-11, Black Arts Movement South 51st Celebration, Dillard University, New Orleans LA
September 17 Beyonce' Levi's Stadium
Sept 30-October 1, Donald Lacy's play Color Struck, Laney College Theatre
October 22, 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Black Panther Party, Museum of California
July 1, Friday
|
July 1, Friday, Kev Choice CD release party, Yoshi's Oakland, 8PM, 10PM
We
support Kev Choice because he supports the Black Arts Movement Business
District in Oakland. He has attended our meetings to establish the
BAMBD. So we appreciate Kev Choice!
July 3, Sunday, Mandela Foods Cooperative Festival
On
Mandela Cooperative's Interdependence Day, we'll be having all sorts of
interactive booths, games, movement, and performances. Food'll be free,
and the fun don't stop 'til 4-o-clock, so bring family to join in the
festivities!"
Volunteers: http://tinyurl.com/Mandela7thVolunteer
Vendors: http://tinyurl.com/Mandela7thVend
July 3, Sunday, 1:30-3:30PM, San Francisco Main Library Discussion of Black Hollywood Unchained
Some of you know that last year, Third World Press published Black Hollywood Unchained. Edited by Ishmael Reed, the book contains a collection of critical essays by various authors around the country in reaction to Quentin Tarentino’s movie Django Unchained.
On
Sunday, July 3, 1:30-3:30 pm, several of the authors will participate
in a panel discussion at the San Francisco Public Library Main Branch to
discuss the impact of Django Unchained
as well as other Hollywood movie depictions of African-American life.
Included with author presentations will be a time for questions and
answers.
Along with Ishmael Reed, other participants include Halifu Osumare, Cecil Brown, Marvin X, Justin Desmangles, and myself.
If you’re in the Bay Area that weekend, hope you can make it.
Jesse Allen-Taylor
July 3 thru September Poetry in The Park
July 3 thru September Poetry in The Park
Writing circle for all ages to fellowship, release and create together. Bring a blanket, journal, and a snack to share. Poetry in the park will be loosely guided by poets Aries Jordan and Samantha Akwei. Sundays 3-5 varies, Oakland parks in B.A.M.B.D and surrounding areas
June 29 -- July 20, City of Oakland Young African Leadership Project
Fellows
from UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy will shadow City
Department Heads to learn about leadership, local government processes
and more about Oakland
Karen Seneferu and Melorra Green curate 60+ intergenerational artists working in sculpture, painting, and new media hone in on the vital contributions of Black women as artists and social change-makers, ensuring that the Black woman's contribution to society is seen and valued. SOMA Arts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. , San Francisco
July 6- 31, California Shakespeare Theatre presents Fences by August Wilson, one of our greatest griots, i.e., story tellers. FYI, the Bay Area and the world needs to know the only dramatist who has produced the complete cycle of works by August Wilson in chronological order is our very own Bay Area diva of BAM theatre, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD.
July 15, Memorial for Kamau Amen-Ra and Photo Exhibition honoring his work. EASTSIDE CULTURAL CENTER, 2277 International Blvd, 5-9PM. Bring a dish to share. - Please spread the word!
July 7- 17 The
Black Woman is god Exhibit
Karen Seneferu and Melorra Green curate 60+ intergenerational artists working in sculpture, painting, and new media hone in on the vital contributions of Black women as artists and social change-makers, ensuring that the Black woman's contribution to society is seen and valued. SOMA Arts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St. , San Francisco
July 6- 31, California Shakespeare Theatre presents Fences by August Wilson, one of our greatest griots, i.e., story tellers. FYI, the Bay Area and the world needs to know the only dramatist who has produced the complete cycle of works by August Wilson in chronological order is our very own Bay Area diva of BAM theatre, Dr. Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD.
California Shakespeare Theater's 25th anniversary season
at the Bruns Amphitheater continues with August Wilson 's Pulitzer
Prize-winning story of the American Dream deferred, Fences, directed by
Raelle Myrick-Hodges in her Cal Shakes debut. Fences, which plays from
July 6 through July 31, marks the first time Cal Shakes has presented
August Wilson 's work on its stage.
July 15, Memorial for Kamau Amen-Ra and Photo Exhibition honoring his work. EASTSIDE CULTURAL CENTER, 2277 International Blvd, 5-9PM. Bring a dish to share. - Please spread the word!
July 16, Tribe city Festival
Music, art, and
culture festival designed to reflect the theme urban village,
calling for international recognition of the importance of collective efficacy
throughout the African Diaspora.Heron's Head and
India Basin Shoreline Parks Bayview Hunters Point, San Francisco
July 23, 25th Oakland Black Expo, Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza
July 26, City of Oakland BAMBD Cultural Keepers, Tuesday, 6-8pm, Oak Center Cultural Center, 14th and Adeline
August 25--September 4, Black Arts Movement Theatre Festival, Flight Deck Theatre, 1540 Broadway, Oakland
The Toilet by Amiri Baraka
September 4, 6th Annual Pan African Family Reunion, Mosswood Park, Oakland
What:
Pan African Family reunion promotes
individual and community rejuvenation, and cultural pride through the
presentation of art, the opportunity for art-making, artisan vending, and the
invocation of cultural tradition.
Where: Mosswood Park, Oakland
June thru September 18, The Grace Jones Project, MOAB, San Francisco (see review below)
September 9-11, Black Arts Movement South 51st Anniversary Celebration, Dillard University, New Orleans, LA
We
are in the midst of what can be seen as a second wave of appreciation
and exploration of the cultural genius of the Black Arts Movement. Amiri
Baraka, Larry Neal, Haki Madhubuti, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Kalamu
ya Salaam, Marvin X and countless other voices moved us toward new
understandings of Black identity in the late 60s and early 70s. Now we
find ourselves in a moment in which their art and their thought were
never more relevant.
--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Alphonse Fletcher University Professor, Harvard University
September 30-October 1, Donald Lacy's play Color Struck, Laney College Theatre
October 22, Black Panther Party 50th Anniversary Celebration, Museum of California
October
2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther
Party (for Self Defense). History will surely recognize the Party as
having organized the single greatest effort by Blacks in the United
States for freedom under a radical ideology of national liberation and
self determination.
Contact Information
Email: blackpantherparty50@gmail.com
Address: P.O.Box 23963, Oakland, CA 94623
The Movement Newsletter
Contents
1. City of Oakland to host Young African Leadership Initiative Fellowship Program
Oakland, CA – The
City of Oakland will host six fellows, who have been selected as some
of the most influential and thriving young leaders in Africa, as part of
the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). They all come from
different countries and focus on various interests and ventures such as
Food Security, Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Education, Health and
Public Safety. This opportunity to see how a city government works
together to provide service to the community inspires and allows the
fellows to continue to innovate and envision new ideas that will help
their home country. Departments hosting fellows this year are the
Oakland Fire Department, City Auditor’s Office, Building & Planning
Department, City Clerk’s Office, Public Works Department and Human
Resources Management Department.
Courtesy AD
Marshawn Lynch's Beast Mode opens in the BAMBD
Seattle Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch, center, celebrates the opening of his new "Beast Mode" apparel store on Broadway in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. To the left is his sister Marreesha Lynch and to the right is is grandmother Shirley Lynch and cousin and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh. Beast Mode is in the BAMBD. Buy Black.
Courtesy AD
Marshawn Lynch's Beast Mode opens in the BAMBD
Seattle Seahawks' Marshawn Lynch, center, celebrates the opening of his new "Beast Mode" apparel store on Broadway in Oakland, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016. To the left is his sister Marreesha Lynch and to the right is is grandmother Shirley Lynch and cousin and Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh. Beast Mode is in the BAMBD. Buy Black.
The
fellows are scheduled to shadow their mentors as well as listen to
presentations from various city departments. They will explore different
areas of Oakland and be able to meet Oakland leaders, staff and
community members. The fellows will be presenting on their home country,
their experiences and the work they are doing now through the YALI
Speaker Series which is open to City employees and the public.
BACKGROUND
Last
summer, a YALI Fellowship cohort came to City of Oakland on four
Wednesdays during their program to shadow and learn how the City of
Oakland operates. They were mentored by Department Heads from Oakland
Fire Department, City Auditor’s Office, Parks & Recreation
Department, Port of Oakland, Housing & Community Development
Department and Human Resources Management Department. Their experience
had a profound impact on the YALI program as well as the employees of
the City of Oakland. In 2016, UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public
Policy wanted the City of Oakland to have a large role in the fellowship
program for a second year.
Dates of the Fellowship and Speaker Series Events
The
YALI Fellows will be placed with mentors at the three City
administrative buildings in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza as well as at the
Municipal Service Center, 7101 Edgewater Drive.
The fellows will visit the City of Oakland sites on:
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
The fellows will be giving presentations to the public and City employees on:
Wednesday, July 13, 2016, 1 to 2 p.m. at Oakland City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza
Wednesday, July 20, 2016, 1 to 2 p.m. at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland, 659 14th Street
About the Mandela Fellowship
The
Goldman School of Public Policy and the University of California,
Berkeley are excited and energized by the Young African Leaders
Initiative’s Mandela Fellowship Program and its focus on civic
leadership. Throughout UC Berkeley’s history civic leadership and
engagement has played a significant role in the campus’ evolution. From
the peace strikes in the 1930s, to the Free Speech Movement of 1964, to
today’s student body that is active in volunteerism and community
service, civic participation and leadership are integral to the Berkeley
experience. In summer 2014, the Goldman School hosted 25 emerging
leaders from sub-Saharan Africa. They are looking forward to welcoming
our second cohort this year.
The
Mandela Fellowship for Young African Leaders was announced on June 29,
2013, in South Africa by President Barrack Obama when he stated, “We’re
launching a new program that’s going to give thousands of promising
young Africans like you the opportunity to come to the United States and
develop your skills at some of our best colleges and universities.” The
new Mandela Fellowship is personally supported by the President of the
United States and the U.S. Department of State. We at the Goldman School
believe strongly that President Obama’s vision and mission for this
Fellowship and the mission of UC Berkeley for its students are exactly
the same – Let there be Light. Our domestic students are grappling with
global issues and hunger for more intimate opportunities to understand
and be change agents. By hosting this program at the Goldman School, our
students will get front row opportunities to interact with these future
African leaders, understand the context of global issues, and take part
in developing global solutions.
The
Goldman School is developing a cohesive civic leadership program that
will focus on the skills that young African leaders need to run better
ministries and serve their communities. The program will include
developing the skills to identify, analyze and solve crucial issues
found within a community and allow these civically engaged leaders to
empower and motivate others to become involved change agents. The
program will also include enrichment activities such as visiting the
California State Capitol in Sacramento to view a legislative session,
taking a trip to Muir Woods to see conservation in action and a host of
cultural and social activities taking advantage of the museums and
sights the San Francisco-Bay Area has to offer.
For more information, visit https://gspp.berkeley.edu/global/fellowship-programs/young-
african-leaders-initiative
Courtesy AD
406 Fourteenth St. Downtown Oakland, CA 94612
Black Artists/activists gather at the Joyce Gordan Gallery in honor of
slain journalist Chauncey Bailey. Joyce Gordan far right.
2. Review: The Grace Jones Project by Kadesh Carter
Review: The Grace Jones Project
By Kadesh Carter
Over
the years I have been asked who was my favorite artist, and for many of
those years I did not have an answer. Being a painter, I always told
myself to appreciate the works of others, but for some reason I never
gravitated towards anyone in particular. I never wanted to make works
based on the thought of anyone else, and I never wanted to recreate the
works of another artist. I know for some, this method is a form of
flattery based on inspiration - which is a beautiful thing, but I always
wanted to make my own way. Create from my imagination, no matter how
different it may have seemed to be. Uniqueness is a quality right? So,
it was I was watching "Boomerang" starring Eddie Murphy, and there she
appeared, Strangé, beautiful and boldly herself. Now, I could tell there
was more to this actress than lines from a script, so I dug deeper. Her
name was one that I would be sure to remember.
Who? Grace Jones. Who? Grace Jones.
What better way to create than to create from the depths of your soul. She was Grace Jones. And she created from her soul without limitation. There are many who live in this world, but few who walk their own path without regret.
Grace is definitely one of these humans. The influence of her work
changed the art world in more ways than one. Music, fashion,
performance, culture, and visual arts have all been mediums mastered.
From the start of her public career her one of a kind approach has been
purely amazing to see. Using color, bodily expression, and the freedom
of art has made many attempt to duplicate what Grace originated. I had
found my favorite artist from a great movie and what she represented was
what I wished to someday come close to.
mak·er
ˈmākər/
a person or thing that makes or produces something.
synonyms: creator, manufacturer, constructor, builder, producer
Queen of Makers... Call Her The Future
In
today's time I would define her as the Queen of Makers. In past times I
would have called her the future. The weekend had rolled around a
couple of months ago, and the date destination was a trip from Oakland
to San Francisco to the museum to an exhibit featuring Grace Jones and I
was more than delighted. With the many shows that I have experienced at
the Museum Of the African Diaspora, The Grace Jones Project is one that
I will always remember. Curated by Nicole J. Caruth, everything about
the show was astounding. Each art piece individually clearly projected
the impact of Grace on the artist and their views of how she is art herself.
The
Grace Jones Project is on display now - Sept. 18 at the Museum of the
African Diaspora in San Francisco. For more information please visit moadsf.org.
Best Regards,
Kadesh Carter
Creative Director
3. Gentrification by Kujichagulia
Gentrification and “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”
by Kujichagulia
Kujichagulia
In
1963, former governor of Alabama, George Wallace, delivered his
infamous inauguration speech declaring, “Segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, segregation forever!” Fast forward more than half a century
later. America boasts of being a post-racial society, yet segregation
remains an American epidemic. From colonization to plantations,
reservations, ghettos, border patrols, and gated communities of
insecurity forever whistling Dixie and protecting the Confederacy,
America is determined to go down singing, “Segregation now, segregation
tomorrow, segregation forever!”
Although
the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 prohibited segregation, mere legislation
cannot regulate bigotry, ignorance, hatred, fear, or inhumanity. Instead
of achieving desegregation, thus began half a century of “White flight”
from major cities across the country to newly established suburbs where
housing, education, liberty and justice were denied to all Melanites
(non-Whites). The Kerner Commission Report of 1968
addressed the practice and politics of White flight stating “America’s
social norm of segregation and exclusion leads to one obvious conclusion
– “Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white -
separate and unequal.”
In
spite of an exodus from the cities in search of nuevo-segregation
elsewhere, myopic dreams of perpetual privilege gave way to the stark
realization that white-flight did not improve the quality of white life.
Although white-flighters were able to avoid being neighbors to any
Melanites, they couldn’t avoid the two- to five-hour segregated commutes
that dominated their morning and evening routines from white-washed
suburbia to the chocolate/brown cities they abandoned in favor of
sustaining segregation and tolerating racism from the sidelines. Once
antebellum dreams of racially-sanitized suburbs morphed into daily
nightmares of refilling gas tanks for bumper-to-bumper commutes with
intoxicating vehicle exhaust, crowded carpools, expensive toll booths,
and random acts of road rage, white-flight shifted into reverse.
The
solution – gentrification! Based on the rules of segregation,
gentrification displaces Melanite (non-White) families from their homes,
communities, and cities so that the gentry (wealthy White class) can
relocate back into the cities. As a result, foreclosures, redlining,
escalating prices, and exorbitant rents force many Black and Hispanic
people/families out of Oakland, as well as many metropolitan cities
nationally. Rising property taxes are pricing long-established families
out of their homes. Caucasians are consistently awarded with homes and
home loans, while Blacks and Hispanics are routinely denied homes and
home loans. Likewise, Blacks and Hispanics are generally denied home
improvement loans. Moreover, Blacks and Hispanics are often charged
exorbitant interest rates on the home loans eventually attained. The
result … more segregation.
In
February of 2016, the document, ECONOMIC EQUITY: LOCKED OUT OF THE
MARKET / POOR ACCESS TO HOME LOANS FOR CALIFORNIANS OF COLOR, revealed
an unwavering commitment to segregation and racism in the 21st century.
According to journalist, Rob Wile, “The study,
co-produced by the Greenlining Institute and Urban Strategies Council,
found that in 2013, the top-twelve lenders helped African American
borrowers purchase a mere four homes in Oakland, while Hispanic borrowers received just seven home purchase loans.” The Rob Wile article, Another mortgage lender just settled charges that it discriminated against blacks and Hispanics for years (http://fusion.net/story/141197/another-mortgage-lender-just-settled-charges-that-it-discriminated-against-blacks-and-hispanics-for-years/),
documented, “San Bruno, Calif.-based Provident Funding Associates is
accused of charging 14,000 minority borrowers interest rates and broker
fees that were on average hundreds of dollars, and at times thousands,
higher than what white borrowers paid. The practice started as early as
2006 and lasted through at least 2011, according to the Justice
Department’s complaint.” Yet it is what it is; it's business as usual;
life goes on, et cetera. While gentrification guarantees increased
segregation under the guise of urban improvement; it's merely business
as usual. It's the same ole progressive racism that patriotically
fulfills America's prophecy of “segregation now, segregation tomorrow,
segregation forever!”
(Reprinted from the SF Examiner Online http://www.examiner.com/ethnic-community-in-oakland/kujichaguliaphavia-kujichagulia)
4. Working on a theory about Orlando by J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
WORKING ON A THEORY ABOUT ORLANDO
A CounterPoints Column
By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
For expert fiction and non-fiction editing consultation, email me at safero@earthlink.net
Among
so many other lessons to be learned from the mid-June mass-murder
shooting at Pulse, the Orlando LGBT club, is a caution against locking
ourselves into assumptions and conclusions before enough information is
gathered and known. Now that a few weeks have passed since the horrific
event, and the initial furor has cooled off a bit, we can more easily
see where some of those early assumptions and conclusions wrong.
Many—including
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump—shut off all further
analysis once they learned that the lone American-born shooter was a
practicing Muslim, had an Arabic name—Omar Mir Seddique Mateen—and
that he had both identified himself as an "Islamic soldier" and pledged
his allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (commonly
known as either ISIS or ISIL) in 911 calls he made in the midst of the
shootings. From that moment on, many declared the Orlando massacre to be
an act of "radical Islamic international terrorism."
In
addition, many of our more conservative friends concluded that the
tragedy might have been averted had there been either "some" or "more"
armed security inside the club itself.
Of
course, there was always an alternate theory that the American-born
Mateen was less motivated by radical Muslim theory than he was by
traditional American-bred homophobia. And within a day or so of the
shooting, evidence emerged—though it has still been not been fully
substantiated—that he may have been a self-hating gay, and that the
public allegiance to ISIL might have merely been a way to paste on a
higher motivation to the shooting and cover up conflicted feelings about
his own sexuality.
In
addition, timelines released by several news outlets showed that an
armed off-duty Orlando police officer was working at the club, and
engaged in a shootout with Mr. Mateen before Mateen entered the
nightclub, and that two on-duty officers entered the club within minutes
and exchanged gunfire with the shooter, forcing him to retreat to a
bathroom.
But
even though some of this information was available within hours of the
first reports of the Orlando gay nightclub shooting, it was ignored in
many minds because it included facts that conflicted with convenient
conclusions already drawn.
Jumping
to conclusions has probably been one of humanity's favorite pastimes
since we first came upon this earth. But that human tendency has
escalated in American life especially—on both the left and the
right—since the rise of social media as our primary news-gathering
medium and national discussion forum. This is in part because if one
doesn't enter into the conversation early, and with a strong opinion one
way or another, the conversation rapidly passes you by. Two weeks, a
provocative tweet Facebook post about the Pulse shootings would have
gotten you scores, and perhaps hundreds, of replies. Post something
about the shootings now and you may get a small discussion, but more
likely you'll generate no more than a reply or two and then silence, as
most people have moved on to new things.
Another
incentive for drawing an early conclusion is that it relieves one of
the responsibility of thinking through what to do about something that
has disturbed you. Pick a pre-determined cause, and along with it comes a
pre-determined set of actions or attitudes to take in response. In the
first few hours following the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal
Building, for example, popular opinion in America had labeled it an act
of foreign-inspired Arab/Islamic terrorism. I recall that after Timothy
McVeigh, a young white American Army veteran, was captured and
identified as the bomber, one of the national news outlets interviewed a
somewhat befuddled older white woman, asking her about her reaction to
the McVeigh arrest. " I don't know what to think, I'm all confused," she
replied. "Now I don't know who I'm supposed to hate."
But such confusionment—if that be a proper word—does not have to be. Some years ago, while I was a reporter for Metro
weekly newspaper in San Jose, I was assigned to a story that
demonstrated to me both the value of waiting before concluding and both a
way to bring it about.
Late
one weekend night in the winter of 1998, the African-American head of
the San Jose State University Black Student Union was discovered lying
unconscious in a deserted open-air hallway in an off-campus housing
complex, having suffered a severe head injury from a possible assault
while talking on a pay telephone. Lakim Washington was a militant and
highly vocal leader for Black student rights on the SJSU campus, and had
clashed with university administration officials and with a number of
white students, including his two white roommates, in the months prior
to the assault.
Within
hours, leaders of the San Jose State BSU charged that Washington had
been the victim of a racially-motivated attack. Although there were no
known witnesses to the attack, and Washington himself could give no
information because he fell immediately into a coma, my editors at Metro believed the charge. I believed the charge, and was assigned the story, essentially, to provide evidence that it was true.
The
problem was, as hard as I tried, I could find no such evidence. No
witnesses came forward. Washington came out of the coma, but reportedly
could not remember anything about the attack, and his family would not
allow reporters to interview him in the hospital where he was
recovering. In addition, representatives of the university police began
spreading the story that there had been no attack at all, but that
Washington had hit his head on the concrete walkway after suffering an
epileptic fit, even though he'd had no prior history of epilepsy.
Eventually
I turned in a story that presented the Washington assault as an
unsolved mystery where a racial attack had been charged but not proved,
and which the university police seemed reluctant to investigate. A few
days after the article was published ("Violent Night" Metro
newspaper, January 22, 1998), a young woman read it, called the police,
and reported she had information that Washington had actually been
assaulted by her boyfriend, an African-American, after the two men had
argued over the use of the telephone. In other words, despite the early
and "obvious" conclusion of a racial component by so many people,
including myself, race had absolutely nothing to do with the assault.
In
other words, despite all the first assumptions by so many
people—myself, my editors, and members of the SJSU BSU—after first
hearing about the Lakim Washington assault, there had been no racial
component to that incident.
It
was during the Lakim Washington investigation and story that I began to
formulate guidelines for guarding against such premature conclusions.
First,
work from a "working theory" rather than a conclusion when you don't
have enough facts in hand about a particular situation. This is more
than just semantics. A conclusion demands defending and is difficult to
change because you have committed yourself to it, even when the actual
facts eventually prove otherwise. A working theory is just that, a
theory. It is presented as a possibility, not as an established truth,
is not necessary to defend, and is more easily modified if need be.
Second, continue to collect facts and modify your theory as necessary as new facts are presented.
Finally,
use any newly-discovered facts to try to disprove your working theory,
rather than trying to prove it. When you try to prove a theory—or a
conclusion—you tend to ignore everything that disproves it. But if you
work to disprove your original theory, it is easier to see the flaws in
it and modify that theory or abandon it altogether, if necessary. On the
other hand, if you honestly try to disprove your working theory and
find you cannot, it makes it more likely that your original theory was
correct.
Using
this formula, one could generally start off with the theory that given
America's history, any situation involving more than one race in this
country is likely to have race as one of its factors, to a greater or
lesser extent. But after that, all other possible factors should be
taken into account to see if their presence might, in fact, disprove the
theory of a racial cause.
Using
this method of theorize-and-attempt-to-disprove, its' entirely possible
to conclude that there are not enough proven facts available about the
Orlando gay nightclub shooting to draw a definite conclusion. It's still
possible that Mr. Mateen's actions were inspired by his fundamentalist
Islamic religious beliefs and the actions of such terrorist
organizations as ISIL. It is also possible that either American-born
homophobia or shame-of-being-closeted-gay were the determining factors.
And it is possible that the ultimate cause was some combination of these
factors or others yet unknown. But it's important to realize that such
uncertainty is okay. One ought to be careful not to jump unless one
knows where the danger is coming from and which location it is traveling
to, lest one ends up jumping directly in its path.
Meanwhile,
there's no magic to this method of working through our original
theories. Much work has to be done to make it work, in almost every
instance. Additional facts have to be ferreted out, sorted and resorted,
and retheorized. We often have to throw out our most treasured
prejudices. Sticking with pre-conceived notions is far, far easier on
the mind, in the short run. In the long run, however, disaster can
easily follow if the myths we have manufactured in our heads do not
agree with the reality we face in the actual world.
That's my working theory, anyways.
Courtesy AD
Anyka Barber's Betti Ono Gallery
Betti Ono founder and curator, Anyka Barber, speaks candidly.
Will Oakland Lose its Artistic Soul? Betti Ono founder and
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Betti Ono is a cultural anchor that has contributed immensely to
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and businesses from displacement. bit.ly/powerloveresistance
5. Jobs and Justice: The Vote on Coal
Friends,
On
Monday, I presided over a historic special hearing of the Oakland City
Council where my colleagues and I made the unanimous decision (7-0 with
Brooks absent) to protect resident and worker health by imposing a ban
on the transloading, handling and storage of coal and petroleum in a
proposed new terminal at the former Oakland Army Base (OAB).
Making
this decision was no easy matter. The Council weighed the information
provided seriously. We hired an independent firm, Environmental
Services Associates (ESA) to complete a thorough analysis of the of the
testimonies provided by the project sponsor, Terminal Logistic Solutions
(TLS), hundreds of residents and health experts, including the Alameda
County Public Health Department. The ESA analysis concluded that the
proposed coal terminal will further exacerbate air quality concerns in
West Oakland. The Administration’s analysis further concluded that the
proponent’s proposed mitigations (e.g. the use of covered rail cars to
contain fugitive coal dust) were insufficient and that “there are
currently no enforceable provisions from the U.S. Department of
Transportation Surface Transportation Board, the Federal Railroad
Administration, or from railroads themselves to require a coal supplier,
a terminal developer or operator in Oakland to utilize any dust
controls for coal shipped from Utah. Similarly, there are currently no
enforceable provisions for a coke supplier or a terminal developer or
operator in Oakland to utilize any dust controls for coke shipped via
rail from suppliers in northern California.” In the end, we concluded
that there is no viable means for the sponsor to protect residents or
workers from the associated risks.
Our
fight is for both jobs and environmental justice. The neighborhoods
where I live and represent suffer pervasive economic and health
disparities. According to a 2015 Alameda County Public Health report. http://www.acphd.org/media/401560/cumulative-health-impacts-east-west-oakland.pdf
West Oakland’s overall rate of asthma emergency department (ED) visits
is almost two times the rate for Alameda County as a whole. Numerous
scientific reports reveal that asthma and cancer rates here are among
the highest in the state. I reject the notion that our communities need
to suffer additional harm in order to create jobs.
I
believe in good jobs that produce living wages and healthy working
conditions. My concerns about the transport of volatile cargo are not
new. In 2014, I co-authored a resolution that received unanimous support
opposing the transport of coal, oil, petcoke (a byproduct of the oil refining process)
and other hazardous materials by railways and waterways within the
City. We have been joined in this effort to improve public health and
safety by an impressive cadre of scientists and elected leaders
including Senator Loni Hancock, and Assembly members Tony Thurmond and
Rob Bonta. We remain committed to the successful completion of the OAB
development and to the promised opportunity for good jobs as Prologis,
CWS, CASS, and OMSS move forward with plans that will yield thousands of
logistic, transportation, recycling and support jobs without coal.
My
office has received hundreds of emails, phone calls and letters from
Oaklanders (and beyond) expressing strong feelings about the proposed
coal terminal at the former Oakland Army Base. Your voices, your
concerns and your wisdom were at the forefront of this process. We
heard you. Thank you.
With deep Oakland-love,
City Council President Lynette Gibson McElhaney
Representing the Heart & Soul of the Town
|
6. The Black Arts Movement Theatre, University of California, Merced, Professor Kim McMillan
Voices of the Revolutionary Theatre Collective
Social
Responsibility is an ideology that states that the individual or group
has an obligation to act in a manner that benefits, and is in the best
interest of society as a whole. “Theatre and Social Responsibility”
refers to theatre artists, playwrights in the case of this class,
operating within the belief system that art is created for social
change, and to inform the public with regards to human rights issues,
and issues of freedom, inequality, and society’s oppression of an
individual or group. The focus of this class is The Black Arts Movement
in that the movement opened doors for those that have been and continue
to be marginalized. The historian and author Dr. James Smethurst states
that “The Black Arts Movement was arguably the most influential U.S.
arts movement ever.” Dr. Smethurst’s words sum up the enormous impact of
the Black Arts Movement. Yet, how does a movement that is responsible
for public funding of the arts and birthing black identity remain, for
the most part, invisible and forgotten?
The explanation is not simple. However, when the history and culture
of
people of color is not taught, unconsciously the dominant culture is
saying, “Your culture is not of value.” By lifting the veil on the
theatre, culture and literature of the marginalized, the richness and
diversity of American culture can be realized. During the 1960s and
1970s, those of African-American, Chicano/Latino, Native-American, and
Asian heritage used theatre and art as a weapon, calling on the dominant
race to open the door so that all might enter in equality. By
showcasing the works and words of those that have been marginalized,
real dialogue on racism in America can take place. We can no longer hide
this issue in dark places, poisoning the minds and hearts of so many.
The
language of these plays is often crude and graphic, but these authors
carried a message of revolution, and through their art demanded social
and economic change. While many of these plays were written in the 60s
and 70s, their message is timely and offers the opportunity for
transformation for ourselves and society through art.
Kim McMillon, Lecturer
Theater and Social Responsibility
Theatre and Social Responsibility Guest Speakers and Performers
Martha
O. Acevedo has been on the board of the Merced County Arts Council off
and on for about 20 years. Retired recently from the California
Department of Education after 30 years of service, she was also a county
school, district level administrator and teacher. She is a pioneer
Administrator and teacher in Bilingual bicultural and Chicano Studies
programs and Migrant Education. Born and raised in East Los Angeles
(Garfield High School and East Los Angeles College), she earned a B.A.
at UC Irvine and an M.A. in Education from Stanford University,
specializing in second language learning and teacher education. She has 2
grown daughters and 6 grandchildren.
Judy
Juanita enrolled at 16 years old at Oakland City College where she
first met Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. Transferring to San Francisco
State, she joined students from the Mississippi Bus Rides and Freedom
Summer in creating the country’s first Black Student Union and joined
the Black Panther Party. When Eldridge Cleaver was jailed after the 1968
shootout, Huey appointed her editor-in-chief of the BPP newspaper. She
worked on the newspaper and the BPP Breakfast for Children program while
finishing her BA at SF State. She became the youngest faculty member of
the SFState Black studies program, teaching black journalism from the
freedom journals and abolitionist movement to the present. Her
semi-autobiographical novel, Virgin Soul, was published by Viking in
2013. Set in the sixties in the Bay Area, its main character grows from a
sexually and politically unaware student into an independent woman in
the Black Panther Party.
Marvin
X Born Marvin Jackmon on May 29, 1944, Marvin X is a poet, playwright
and essayist. One of the movers and shakers of the Black Arts Movement,
he has published 30 books, including essays, poetry, and his
autobiography Somethin’ Proper. Receiving his MA in English/Creative
Writing from San Francisco State University, he has taught at numerous
colleges and universities. Important books include Fly to Allah, poems,
Beyond Religion, Toward Spirituality, essays on consciousness, and How
to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy, a manual based on the
12 step Recovery model. Ishmael Reed says, “Marvin X is Plato teaching
on the streets of Oakland.” His latest book is the Wisdom of Plato
Negro, parables/fables, Black Bird Press, Berkeley. He currently teaches
at his Academy of da Corner, in Oakland, CA.
Cheryl
Lockett is a vocal entertainer, visual artist and instructor with an
innate ability to manipulate sound using her voice. As a visual artist,
Lockett integrates music and visual art together, giving sight to sound
by creating musical percussion instruments from natural and recyclable
product. The instruments are designed and used to explore rhythm for
musical composition. Lockett runs a private studio teaching individuals
fundamental elements of music and visual art. Cheryl Lockett cultivates,
curates and presents an eclectic vision of sound that appeals to a
diverse listening audience. The roots music that exemplifies her vocal
style is a fusion of modern jazz, vintage blues, classic rock, Afro-
Latin and Native American rhythms, with minor key tonality. Her riveting
voice and warm style promises any listener an aesthetically pleasing
and cohesive composition of music that flows like silk.
Genny
Lim is a native San Franciscan poet and playwright. She is the author
of the award winning play, Paper Angels, performed here in the U.S.,
Canada and China, as well as on the PBS’series, American Playhouse in
1985. Author of two collections of poetry, a book of plays and ISLAND;
Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910- 1940 and
a children’s book, Wings for Lai Ho. She is currently completing an
expanded and revised edition of ISLAND with Judy Yung. Genny has
performed in Poetry Festivals in Italy, Sarajevo and Venezuela as well
as throughout the U.S. and has collaborated with prominent jazz
musicians, including Max Roach, Herbie Lewis, John Santos, Jon Jang,
Francis Wong, Lewis Jordan and Hafez Modirzedeh.
7. Photo essay by Kamau Amen Ra (from the archives of Marvin X)
8. Dr. Ayodele Nzinga replies to Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney's response to Marvin X and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant
Dear Madam President McElhaney,
Marvin
X, my mentor and elder, found your response quite eloquent and urged me
to respond to you since you referenced my efforts in engaging the
community to help with the implementation of a Black Arts Movement
Business District. I am deeply committed to the creation of a Black Arts
Movement Business District as envisioned by those who dreamed it fifty
years ago. Marvin X and the late Amiri Baraka, both internationally
known founding members of The Black Arts Movement envisioned Black
Cultural Districts nationwide. In his hometown, Newark, New Jersey,
Baraka called his vision The Jazz District. Marvin’s vision for his
hometown, Oakland CA., is an immense one. It is in service to that dream
that I join the conversation.
Your
reply reminds us of the weight of your responsibilities as a council
person and you state your current priorities. Thank you for offering us
your understanding of where BAMBD fits into current City of Oakland
matters as well as the short outline for implementing the stages of
BAMBD.
As
a resident of District 3 who works and lives in the BAMBD footprint, I
appreciate your timely update. There is a great deal of community
interest in the successful implementation of a vibrant cultural district
that will help address some of the issues that are priorities for you.
The
things you are prioritizing should indeed be pressing issues for the
entire council. I note that some of your priorities align the proposed
pillars of BAMBD, which we envision as a comprehensive entity with a
design that addresses pressing needs of Oakland’s disenfranchised and
marginalized North American African communities in a wholistic fashion.
In
my humble opinion the successful implementation of the Black Arts
Movement Business District is the only tangible solution currently
offered to provide relief to a portion of the city’s population feeling
under siege. Neither 90 day moratoriums, nor plans to provide affordable
housing in 2020 will serve those who need solutions to exorbitant rents
now.
Considering
the fact that $2,270.00 a month is the median rent for a one bedroom in
Oakland according to Zumper which places Oakland in a tie for 5th on a
list of the most expensive cities in America for renters, housing is
certainly a pressing issue, which if unaddressed will result in the
continued exodus of low income people from Oakland.
If something is not done there will be no substantial North American
African population in Oakland to enjoy or benefit from a Cultural
District. We look forward to the implementation of BAMBD and its
potential to provide additional economic opportunity in Oakland. The
same population plagued by negative interactions with law enforcement is
by and large the same group that is affected by housing issues and
urgently needs the work you are attempting with police reform. A recent
report cites that much of the cycle of violence in Oakland can be tied
to structural disparity; that cycle of disparity places the
disenfranchised in negative relationship with law enforcement and
hastens gentrification while amplifying displacement.
I
applaud your efforts to speak to the negative relationship with law
enforcement and its deadly effect. I eagerly await the opportunity to
assist in the implementation of BAMBD to offer a space to grow solutions
that speak to your priorities as well as our vision for North American
African survival and meaningful progress in Oakland.
I
am also encouraged by your acknowledgment of our community effort to
meet, our visioning and collaborative research of existing cultural
districts. To that end I request a meeting with you to discuss pending
development in the BAMBD footprint and to formally request the
assistance of your office in the process of drafting community benefit
requests for any and all pending development within the footprint and
the intended use of funds currently earmarked for BAMBD by process of
community negotiation for benefit in the footprint.
I
look forward to reconvening the Culture Keepers to hear your progress
on these matters and to work closely with you to make BAMBD a
comprehensively designed vehicle that offers tangible ways to address
our total needs.
In Service,
Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, PhD
Founding Director,
Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc
BAMBD Servant & Architect
9. BAMBD Notes from Aries Jordan, Associate Editor
9. BAMBD Notes from Aries Jordan, Associate Editor
Aries Jordan
We are excited to announce The Movement, Newsletter of Black Arts Movement Business District Oakland. The Movement newsletter is a gathering
place to share information on the development and implementation of
the Oakland Black Arts Movement district. As well as, a collective
time capsule of how North American African people are thinking, feeling,
knowing and coming into their power at this time.
Do you or your organization have any cultural events coming up ?
Are you interested in submitting original artwork, poetry and writing?
*At
this point all submissions must be culturally specific to the North
American African community and related to the 5 pillars of Black Arts
Movement Business District
B.A.M.B.D Pillars:
*Housing
*Commerce
*Equitable public support for artist and cultural workers
*Development, proliferation and dissemination of intellectual capital
*Increased access to services
*Commerce
*Equitable public support for artist and cultural workers
*Development, proliferation and dissemination of intellectual capital
*Increased access to services
All submissions should be sent to bambdistrict@gmail.com. Subject line: Movement Submission.
Helpful links to learn more about B.A.M.B.D
B.A.M.B.Historical sites within B.A.M.B.D corridor 14th street:
Post Article: legislation:https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/350bayarea/pages/2409/attachments/original/1452281545/01-06-16_Oakland_Post.pdf?1452281545Oakland
10. Times of Fire
it is a time of fire
an age of rising
like waves on a
black sea we are
the pouring over after
being pressed down witness
fire on the water we are
the lesson of the lynching tree
the answer to cotton
the trespassers of language
undressing the weapons
hidden in ink
we are the dreams
projected from projects
the residual of slave hollars
before the rebellions
we are the pouring over
after pressing down
we have walked
miles in the rain & not
drowned we will light
the sun we come with
fire we are of fire & water
we are closer to the dust
knowing we fall like seeds
we come forth in abundance
thrive in the flicker
of the slimmest chance
we come bearing fire
born in a time where vanity
rules truth tellers are slain
poets are labeled mad & fire
is born tended
carried in bellies
hearts minds souls
hot like fire baby
we don’t want new dealers
we want to write a new deal
renegotiate the treaty papers
the terms of engagement
the boundaries of the public
sphere & all thoughts of
manifest destiny
we come with fire
fire heals & destroys baby
we don’t want a new dealer
in this time of callous
disregard the unwashed
walk along the river’s
edge wrapped in the echo
tapped out on iron
Ogun proceeds
Shango gathers the rear
the sound conjures
an unslave ditty
with a free style
cadence breaking
the air of ignorance
disrupting sinister off-key songs of
self-divined too big to fail
democratic failures playing
one note on the backbones
of the oppressed wrapped in lawless
law ink weapons protecting
invisible war criminals above
law stealing lying dirty hands
operation stealth cloaked in subliminal
sound bites selling us crazy
at market rate
talking heads full of schemes
no quarter offered
none asked
we have come with fire baby
to light paper houses
deconstructing language
writing the narrative of
rebellion burning with forward
motion on our breath
prayer is better than sleep
action more divine than prayer
movement is life we moving
proof of life baby
on fire with no more
time to dance you a jig
juggle two realities
pretend like you make sense
truth is a sword we got
one reality we refuse to
be crazy for you
might be a good time
for you to stop pretending
like you crazy too truth
is a sword cutting through
concocted innocence
perceived fragility
& delusions of supremacy
one reality
not invisible
carrying fire
forward motion on
our breath armed
with fire & truth
hot like fire baby
Ayodele Nzinga, MFA, Ph. D.
Executive Producing Director,
The Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc
Season17. Ubuntu
Collected Acts 8/2016 & Mama at Twilight: Death by Love 1/2017
Keep Up!
11. Speech by Jesse Williams at BET Awards
“This
award, this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the
country. The activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling
parents, the families, the teachers, the students, that are realizing
that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand
if we do.
All
right? It’s kind of basic mathematics:, the more we learn about who we
are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize. Now this is also in
particular for the black women, in particular, who have spent their
lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and
will do better for you.
Now,
what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police
somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every
day. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and
justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and
ours.
Now
— I’ve got more, y’all. Yesterday would’ve been young Tamir Rice’s 14th
birthday, so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when
paid public servants can pull a drive-by on a 12-year-old playing alone
in a park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going
home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better to live
in 2012 than 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to
Sandra Bland. Tell that to Darrien Hunt.
Now
the thing is though, all of us in here getting money, that alone isn’t
going to stop this. All right? Now dedicating our lives to get money
just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body, when we
spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies and now we pray to get
paid for brands on our bodies.
There
has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of.
There has been no job we haven’t done, there’s been no tax they haven’t
levied against us, and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow
always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she
would’ve been alive if she hadn’t acted so… “free.”
Now,
freedom is always coming in the hereafter. But, you know what though?
The hereafter is a hustle. We want it now. And let’s get a couple of
things straight, just a little side note: The burden of the brutalized
is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, all right, stop
with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our
resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of
our oppression. If you have no interest in equal rights for black people
then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.
We’ve
been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done
watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and
abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind, while
extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil, black
gold. Ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them,
gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before
discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is, though,
the thing is that just because we’re magic, doesn’t mean we’re not
real.”
Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. writer Alice Walker pauses during an interview with the Associated Press in Gaza City in 2009.
Jesse Williams has already moved many with his passionate
speech at the BET Awards on Sunday and now he has inspired Alice Walker,
the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Color Purple," to pen a poem
in response to his message. Walker's new work addresses the "fear of blackness in white culture."
Here it is the beauty that scares you
-so you believe-
to death.
For he is certainly gorgeous
and he is certainly where whiteness
to your disbelief
has not wandered off
to die.
No. It is there, tawny skin, gray eyes,
a Malcolm-esque jaw. His loyal parents
may Goddess bless them
sitting proud and happy and no doubt
amazed
at what they have done.
For he is black too. And obviously
with a soul
made of everything.
Try to think bigger than you ever have
or had courage enough to do:
that blackness is not where whiteness
wanders off to die: but that it is
like the dark matter
between stars and galaxies in
the Universe
that ultimately
holds it all
together.
--Alice Walker
13. Ishmael Reed reviews the musical Hamilton: The Negro in slave master dress and it's not Halloween!
Hamilton and the Negro Whisperers: Miranda’s Consumer Fraud
Among
the types of black writers are the “Negro Whisperers,” whose assignment
is to explain blacks to whites like the guide in the Tarzan movies,
who, in the words of Adolph Reed, Jr. tells them what those drums mean.
Then there’s the native who challenges the lies that come down from the
colonial office. The native that is regarded by the occupiers as
“dangerous.” John A. Williams, whose memorial service will be held in
Teaneck, New Jersey, on May 29, didn’t have as many readers as the
“Negro Whisperers” but he was so dangerous as to be placed on the FBI
list of black writers to be placed in “custodial detention,” * in case
of a National Emergency. (They spelled my name, “Ismael.”) He was part
of a tradition of black writers dating back to the 1800s, and though
these writers could be as hard on blacks as whites, this entire
tradition is being dismissed by the new post race “Negro Whisperers,” as
one of scorn and of “hating whitey.” Williams, and Amiri Baraka would
have a field day with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical “Hamilton.” So would
Gwendolyn Brooks, who could have attended all of the occupier’s dinner
parties, but chose to remain in the forest with her people. (Baraka is
now so beloved by The New York Times, which hated him while he was alive, that they recommended his book of poetry for a Christmas gift.)
Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton,” originated the sales pitch for his musical, which, according to the Times, might earn a billion dollars for its investors. During an interview conducted by Rob Weinert-Kendt, New York Times, Feb. 5, 2015. He said:
There would be no demand for tickets had it not been for an extraordinary bit of salesmanship from The New York Times, which had been rooting for “Hamilton” since 2012, culminating in a rave review from Ben Brantley published when it opened in August, 2015. He wrote
“As for the question of slavery, which is the great original sin of this country, it’s in the third line of the show. But it’s this thing that keeps getting kicked down the field. Hamilton and Burr were part of the [abolitionist] New York Manumission Society, so they were actually very progressive. But there’s only so much time you can spend on it when there’s no end result to it.”In the show’s last song, his widow, Eliza, sings that Hamilton would have “done so much more” against slavery had he lived longer. Miranda’s is an odd assertion since even Ron Chernow, one of these historians who long for a period when powerful white men were in charge, maybe the country that Trump followers want “to take back,” says that Hamilton “may” have owned two household slaves. Miranda says that he based his musical on Ron Chernow’s book “Hamilton.” Miranda should have consulted other sources that challenge this high school notion that Hamilton was some sort of abolitionist. But that would have been a real turn off for the feel good version of the Founding Fathers, enslavers and what’s often left out, Indian exterminators, which has drawn largely white audiences, who can afford tickets that sell for as much as $700.
There would be no demand for tickets had it not been for an extraordinary bit of salesmanship from The New York Times, which had been rooting for “Hamilton” since 2012, culminating in a rave review from Ben Brantley published when it opened in August, 2015. He wrote
“I am loath to tell people to mortgage their houses and lease their children to acquire tickets to a hit Broadway show. But ‘Hamilton,’ directed by Thomas Kail and starring Mr. Miranda, might just about be worth it — at least to anyone who wants proof that the American musical is not only surviving but also evolving in ways that should allow it to thrive and transmogrify in years to come.”
I challenged the enthusiasm for a show that glorifies a man who participated in holding people against their will in my article written for CounterPunch,
August 21, 2015. What was the difference between Hamilton and Ariel
Castro who did the same thing, I asked. Should Castro’s face be on the
ten-dollar bill? Hamilton’s defenders maintain that Hamilton was smart.
So was Castro who was able to accomplish his despicable deed without
being detected. In my article I quoted historians who were not as swept
away by Founding Fathers chic, or Hamilton fever as much as Chernow,
Miranda and writers for The New York Times. Professor Michelle Duross, of the University at Albany, State University of New York, is much more direct and
shows what happens when someone from a class, whose voice has been
neglected, invades the all-white male country club of historians. Unlike
Chernow, her treatment of Hamilton as a slave trader is not couched in
equivocating qualifiers that are favorable to this founding father, I
wrote. She takes to task the Hamilton biographies written by his
awe-struck groupies:
“Alexander Hamilton’s biographers praise Hamilton for being an abolitionist, but they have overstated Hamilton’s stance on slavery.She writes, “Hamilton’s position on slavery is more complex than his biographers’ suggest.” Some historians maintain that Hamilton’s birth on the island of Nevis and his subsequent upbringing in St. Croix instilled in him a hatred for the brutalities of slavery. Historian James Oliver Horton suggests that Hamilton’s childhood surrounded by the slave system of the West Indies “would shape Alexander’s attitudes about race and slavery for the rest of his life.’”
“Historian John C. Miller insisted, ‘He [Hamilton] advocated one of the most daring invasions of property rights that was ever made– the abolition of Negro slavery.’
“Biographer Forrest McDonald maintained, ‘Hamilton was an abolitionist, and on that subject he never wavered.’”
She writes,
“No existing documents of Hamilton’s support this claim. Hamilton never mentioned anything in his correspondence about the horrors of plantation slavery in the West Indies.
“Hamilton’s involvement in the selling of slaves suggests that his position against slavery was not absolute. Besides marrying into a slaveholding family, Hamilton conducted transactions for the purchase and transfer of slaves on behalf of his in-laws and as part of his assignment in the Continental Army.”
I
cited another historian, Allan McLane Hamilton, who writes to counter
the claim that Hamilton never owned slaves: “[Hamilton] never owned a
negro slave… is untrue. In his books, we find that there are entries
showing that he purchased them for himself and for others.” Why isn’t
this entry regarded as a smoking gun? After creating the Hamilton mania,
which the Times began in 2012, and which one letter writer termed the Times
coverage as “Daily Worship,” the newspaper acknowledged that there was
dissent. Finally. It came in Jennifer Schuesslera’s April 10, 2016
article entitled “Hamilton’ and History: Are They in Sync? ” She
described the dissent. Critics, according to her, claim that “Hamilton”:
“over-glorifies the man, inflating his opposition to slavery while glossing over less attractive aspects of his politics, which were not necessarily as in tune with contemporary progressive values as audiences leaving the theater might assume.”In a note to me she acknowledges that she read my August 21st CounterPunch piece but traced the beginning of “Hamilton” dissent to a September response by David Waldstreicher’s to remarks made by historian Joseph Adelman, who claimed that Miranda “got the history right.”
She wrote that Waldstreicher, a historian at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, “sounded an early note of skepticism on The Junto, a group blog about early American history.” (Apparently CounterPunch is a name that dare not be mentioned at the Times.) Waldstreicher wrote, “Nobody’s pointing out the pattern of exaggerating Hamilton’s (and other Federalists’) antislavery….” Exaggeration is to put it mildly; nowhere in his comments does Waldstreicher say that Hamilton actually owned slaves. Nobody pointed out that Hamilton’s antislavery has been exaggerated? (Hamilton’s mother also owned slaves and in her will, left the slaves to Hamilton and his brother.) Professors Michelle Duross and Alan McLane among others have pointed it out. Maybe he, like Miranda reads only the Good Old Boys and Girls of the American Historical Establishment.
Professor Lyra D. Monteiro’s article in the journal The Public Historian was also cited. She wrote,
“the show’s multiethnic casting obscures the almost complete lack of identifiable African-American characters, making the country’s founding seem like an all-white affair.“The founders,” she added, “really didn’t want to create the country we actually live in today.”
“It’s an amazing piece of theater, but it concerns me that people are seeing it as a piece of history.”
Ms. Monteiro also read my Counter Punch article and quoted from it in Salon and the Huffington Post. “And one of the points Ishmael Reed made that I loved is that for Elizabeth Schuyler to be a Kim Kardashian of her era involved several slaves preparing her to be so gorgeous at that ball where Hamilton met her. “
Historian Annette Gordon-Reed was quoted in the article as sharing “some of Ms. Monteiro’s qualms, even as she loved the musical and listened to the cast album every day.”
“Imagine ‘Hamilton’ with white actors,” she wrote. “Would the rosy view of the founding era grate?” Good question. Would an all white cast portraying Idi Amin and his cronies in a Broadway musical earn billions for the investors? One letter writer defended Miranda’s taking liberties with history. She cited Shakespeare. Well suppose that you had Jewish actors playing Hitler and his Generals and there appeared a scene in which Hitler pleaded, without success that the Jews be spared. That he was some sort of Philo Semitic.
Defending the show Chernow wrote: “This show is the best advertisement for racial diversity in Broadway history and it is sad that it is being attacked on racial grounds.” Chernow, who is reaping huge profits from the show, is not concerned about the fraudulent representation of Alexander Hamilton? Mr. Miranda, who began the mania, was not available for comment. If I’d misrepresented Hamilton as a “progressive,” I’d be hiding too. Ms. Gordon-Reed further commented that while Hamilton publicly criticized Jefferson’s views on the biological inferiority of blacks, his record from the 1790s until his death in 1804 includes little to no action against slavery. “Hamilton the ardent lifelong abolitionist,” she said, is “an idea of who we would like Hamilton to be.” And so the debate among those members of the Historical Establishment, some of whom are Pulitzer Prize winners, has come down to an argument as to whether Hamilton was abolitionist or not abolitionist enough. This tepid response amounts to a cover-up of the kind that John A. Williams, John O. Killens, Chester Himes and Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Baraka would have challenged.
This latest attempt to whitewash a founding father for money, is preceded by a farce called, “Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson” which lionizes Andrew Jackson, the Eichmann of American extermination policy. Another Establishment historian, Jon Meacham, cast Jackson as some sort of Rock and Roll star. This musical was also praised by Ben Brantley.
Rihanna Yazzie, a playwright who helped organize a protest of the Minneapolis production, said the musical “reinforces stereotypes” and left her feeling “assaulted.”
“The truth is that Andrew Jackson was not a rock star and his campaign against tribal people—known so briefly in American history textbooks as the Indian Removal Act—is not a farcical backdrop to some emotive, brooding celebrity,” Yazzie wrote in an open letter. “Can you imagine a show wherein Hitler was portrayed as a justified, sexy rock star?” The danger of something like “Hamilton” is that school children will be seduced into believing that Hamilton was some kind of “progressive” using Miranda’s words.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History has created a curriculum for 20,000 low-income New York City public school students who will be able to see the musical, in a program funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and subsidized by the show.” I wrote the Rockefeller Foundation on April 12, 2016, proposing that if they must send these kids black and Latino to see “Hamilton” on the grounds that he was a “progressive,” and an “abolitionist” that they might organize a panel during which those who make such a claim defend it against historians who say that he was a slave trader. They could have the panel before or after the show.They didn’t answer.
It’s also a disappointment that Miranda persuaded the treasury to keep Hamilton on the ten-dollar bill, a man who held slaves, instead of replacing him with Harriet Tubman, who freed slaves.
Such views of Yazzie and mine are smothered by millions of dollars in publicity of those who want to pamper the white ticket buying audience. Finally I asked the writer Jennifer Schuessler why there was no mention of Hamilton as a slave trader in her piece. She said that she didn’t have enough space to include this fact.
“@jennyschuesslerSuch a revelation would be an embarrassment for the show’s main booster, The New York Times; would expose Miranda as not being forthcoming about Hamilton’s true history in order to make money, and also be bad for the box office.
Apr 11
@ishmaelreed Thanks. Of course read your earlier [Counterpunch] piece. No room in story to get into issue of Ham and slave selling, etc., alas.”
To paraphrase the slogan used by these brave young souls, Black Lives Never Mattered, Indian lives even less.
Notes.
* F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature: by William J. Maxwell, Jan 4, 2015
-------------------------------
“Hamilton: the Musical:” Black Actors Dress Up like Slave Traders…and It’s Not Halloween
August 21, 2015- counterpunch.org
Establishment historians write best sellers in which some of the cruel actions of the Founding Fathers are smudged over if not ignored altogether. They’re guilty of a cover-up.
This is the case with Alexander Hamilton whose life has been scrubbed with a kind of historical Ajax until it sparkles. His reputation has been shored up as an abolitionist and someone who was opposed to slavery. Not true.
Establishment historians write best sellers in which some of the cruel actions of the Founding Fathers are smudged over if not ignored altogether. They’re guilty of a cover-up.
This is the case with Alexander Hamilton whose life has been scrubbed with a kind of historical Ajax until it sparkles. His reputation has been shored up as an abolitionist and someone who was opposed to slavery. Not true.
Alexander
Hamilton married into the Schuylers, a slaveholding family, and
participated in the bartering of slaves. One of “Hamilton’s” actors,
Renee Elise Goldsberry (“The Color Purple”), who visited the Schuyler
home, said the Schuyler sisters, “were the Kardashians” of 1780 —
superstars, but with dignity and grace.”[1]
Maybe they were able to maintain “dignity and grace” because they had
27 slaves serve them. Black women whose labor assignments left them
little time to preen. Is this actor disregarding, callously, that the
sisters thrived on the labor of enslaved women? No, she probably
attended the same schools that I attended. A curriculum that endowed
slave traders and Indian exterminators with the status of deities.
Even Ron Chernow, author of Alexander Hamilton, upon which the musical “Hamilton” is based, admits (kinda), reluctantly, that Hamilton and his wife may,
[his italics], have owned two household slaves and may have negotiated
the sale of slaves on behalf of his in-laws, the Schuylers. Chernow says
that Hamilton may have negotiated these sales, “reluctantly?” How does
he know this?
Like
other founding fathers, Hamilton found slavery, an “evil,” yet was a
slave trader. The creepy Thomas Jefferson also appears in “Hamilton.” He
was even a bigger hypocrite in his
blaming King George for the slave trade, a contention that was deleted from the final version of the Declaration of Independence.
blaming King George for the slave trade, a contention that was deleted from the final version of the Declaration of Independence.
“Jefferson
railed against King George III for creating and sustaining the slave
trade, describing it as ‘a cruel war against human nature.’”[2]
Was Lin-Manuel Miranda, who designed this show, aware that Thomas
Jefferson’s solution to the Native American problem was “extermination?”
He told his Secretary of War, General Henry Dearborn (who was the
primary government official responsible for Indian affairs): “if we are
constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it
down until that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the
Mississippi.”[3]
Similarly, Andrew Jackson found slavery, “barbaric,” yet owned slaves. He might have been the founder of the false police report. “He concocted stories if discipline crippled or killed a slave. Of a beaten woman, he wrote to a partner in one such cover-up: ‘You may say to Dr. Hogg, that her lament was occasioned by a stroke from Betty [another slave], or jumping over a rope, in which her feet became entangled, and she fell.”’ [4]The same 1 percent establishment critics, who gave Andrew Jackson a pass, are praising “Hamilton.” One writer even hailed Jackson as a Rock and Roll star.
Professor Michelle Duross, of the University at Albany, State University of New York, is much more direct and shows what happens when someone from a class, whose voice has been neglected, invades the all-white male country club of historians. Unlike Chernow, her treatment of Hamilton as a slave trader is not couched in equivocating qualifiers that are favorable to this founding father. She takes to task the Hamilton biographies written by his awe-struck groupies:
She writes,
In the musical, black actors play Washington and other founding fathers. Are they aware that George Washington is known for creating strategies for returning runaways? That he was into search and destroy when campaigning against Native American resistance fighters.
“By 1779, George Washington had already earned the famous moniker ‘Father of His Country.’ Among the Iroquois he was known as Conotocarious, or ‘Town Destroyer.’” [7]
Historians, who serve as lackeys for famous, wealthy white men term him a “merciful slave master.” An oxymoron.
Similarly, Andrew Jackson found slavery, “barbaric,” yet owned slaves. He might have been the founder of the false police report. “He concocted stories if discipline crippled or killed a slave. Of a beaten woman, he wrote to a partner in one such cover-up: ‘You may say to Dr. Hogg, that her lament was occasioned by a stroke from Betty [another slave], or jumping over a rope, in which her feet became entangled, and she fell.”’ [4]The same 1 percent establishment critics, who gave Andrew Jackson a pass, are praising “Hamilton.” One writer even hailed Jackson as a Rock and Roll star.
Professor Michelle Duross, of the University at Albany, State University of New York, is much more direct and shows what happens when someone from a class, whose voice has been neglected, invades the all-white male country club of historians. Unlike Chernow, her treatment of Hamilton as a slave trader is not couched in equivocating qualifiers that are favorable to this founding father. She takes to task the Hamilton biographies written by his awe-struck groupies:
“Alexander Hamilton’s biographers praise Hamilton for being an abolitionist, but they have overstated Hamilton’s stance on slavery.She writes, “Hamilton’s position on slavery is more complex than his biographers’ suggest.” Some historians maintain that Hamilton’s birth on the island of Nevis and his subsequent upbringing in St. Croix instilled in him a hatred for the brutalities of slavery. Historian James Oliver Horton suggests that Hamilton’s childhood surrounded by the slave system of the West Indies “would shape Alexander’s attitudes about race and slavery for the rest of his life.’”
“Historian John C. Miller insisted, ‘He [Hamilton] advocated one of the most daring invasions of property rights that was ever made– the abolition of Negro slavery.’
“Biographer Forest McDonald maintained, ‘Hamilton was an abolitionist, and on that subject he never wavered.’”
She writes,
“No existing documents of Hamilton’s support this claim. Hamilton never mentioned anything in his correspondence about the horrors of plantation slavery in the West Indies.Another historian, Alan McLane Hamilton writes to counter the claim that Hamilton never owned slaves: “[Hamilton] never owned a negro slave… is untrue. In his books, we find that there are entries showing that he purchased them for himself and for others.”[6]
“Hamilton’s involvement in the selling of slaves suggests that his position against slavery was not absolute. Besides marrying into a slaveholding family, Hamilton conducted transactions for the purchase and transfer of slaves on behalf of his in-laws and as part of his assignment in the Continental Army.”[5]
In the musical, black actors play Washington and other founding fathers. Are they aware that George Washington is known for creating strategies for returning runaways? That he was into search and destroy when campaigning against Native American resistance fighters.
“By 1779, George Washington had already earned the famous moniker ‘Father of His Country.’ Among the Iroquois he was known as Conotocarious, or ‘Town Destroyer.’” [7]
Historians, who serve as lackeys for famous, wealthy white men term him a “merciful slave master.” An oxymoron.
“Washington authorized the ‘total destruction and devastation’ of the Iroquois settlements across upstate New York so ‘that country may not merely be overrun but destroyed.’ Under Washington’s orders forty Iroquois villages to ashes, and left homeless many of the Indians, hundreds of whom died of exposure during the following frigid winter.
“Chief Cornplanter, who headed the Seneca tribe of the Iroquois, stressed the durability of ‘Town Destroyer’ as the commander-in-chief’s nickname. ‘And to this day when that name is heard,’ the chief said, ‘our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers. To this day, ‘Town Destroyer’ is still used as an Iroquois name for the president of the United States.”[8]
Slave trading usually involved sex trafficking, where the planters
turned
their plantations into enforced and involuntary harems, an enterprise
that fugitive slave writer, William Wells Brown, found disgusting.
George Washington’s Sally Hemings, according to black oral tradition,
was a slave named Venus. Fifty percent of the slaves at Arlington, where
Robert E. Lee lived with the granddaughter of Martha Washington, were
“bi-racial.”[9]
So
what’s the difference between Ariel Castro who kept three women against
their will and Alexander Hamilton and other founding fathers? His
groupies argue that despite his flaws–they don’t include the
slavet-rading parts–he was smart. Well so was Ariel Castro. He
was able to evade detection by even members of his family. For years.
Moreover did he work these women from sun up to sun down without paying
them? Maybe Broadway will do a musical about his life.
Already,
the same 1 percent critics who drooled over “Bloody Bloody, Andrew”
about Andrew Jackson, the Eichmann of American Native American policy,
are already embracing “Hamilton.” They must be as ignorant as the black
and Latino actors who have lent their talents to “Hamilton.”
Maybe
that’s why the establishment critics leave out the slave parts. The
idea that Black Lives Matter is an improvement over their slavery
status, where blacks were treated as objects to be bought and sold,
worked, beaten, killed and fucked. Though ignorant hateful people say
that the Civil War was fought to uphold “states rights,” the
slaveholders of the south, who kept Africans against their will, as a
result of their free labor, were the richest white people in the world.[10] Maybe the country clubs of historians and Beltway critics still feel that way about African captives.
And why would President Obama lend his prestige to this thing? First he welcomes black pathology pimp, David Simon, to the White House, where he endorsed “The Wire,” a show in which black children are singled out as degenerate drug peddlers, when all of the heroin seems to be stashed in Vermont and other states with few blacks among their population. He honors this hustler even after Prof. Karl Alexander, who did an actual study of Simon’s black Baltimore neighborhoods, found Simon’s presentation to be “one sided” as he put it, politely.
Is this the president’s view of traditional African Americans? Criminals. People who sang and danced their way through slavery under the watchful eye of merciful slave masters? He went to Harvard. Didn’t he take courses from Martin Kilson? Doesn’t the president know that Thomas Jefferson’s proposal for the Native American problem was extermination?
Now The New York Times has appointed Simon the chief interpreter of the black experience. The honorary Head-Negro-In-Charge. Al Jolson without the black face. He’s doing a miniseries about Martin Luther King, Jr. He’s already lined up a couple of black writers to be in on the project, who will be there to defend the thing if black people become upset. It’s being sponsored by Oprah Winfrey who gave a green light to Precious, the worst black movie ever made. I can understand why some young black Americans are leaving the country. I met some of them in Paris.
And why would President Obama lend his prestige to this thing? First he welcomes black pathology pimp, David Simon, to the White House, where he endorsed “The Wire,” a show in which black children are singled out as degenerate drug peddlers, when all of the heroin seems to be stashed in Vermont and other states with few blacks among their population. He honors this hustler even after Prof. Karl Alexander, who did an actual study of Simon’s black Baltimore neighborhoods, found Simon’s presentation to be “one sided” as he put it, politely.
Is this the president’s view of traditional African Americans? Criminals. People who sang and danced their way through slavery under the watchful eye of merciful slave masters? He went to Harvard. Didn’t he take courses from Martin Kilson? Doesn’t the president know that Thomas Jefferson’s proposal for the Native American problem was extermination?
Now The New York Times has appointed Simon the chief interpreter of the black experience. The honorary Head-Negro-In-Charge. Al Jolson without the black face. He’s doing a miniseries about Martin Luther King, Jr. He’s already lined up a couple of black writers to be in on the project, who will be there to defend the thing if black people become upset. It’s being sponsored by Oprah Winfrey who gave a green light to Precious, the worst black movie ever made. I can understand why some young black Americans are leaving the country. I met some of them in Paris.
Now I have seen everything. Can you imagine Jewish actors in Berlin’s theaters taking roles of Goering? Goebbels? Eichmann? Hitler?
When I brought up the subject of Hamilton’s slaveholding in a Times’ comment section, a white man accused me of political correctness. If Hamilton had negotiated the sale of white people, do you think that an audience would be paying $400 per ticket to see a musical based upon his life? No, his reputation would be as tarnished as that of his assassin Aaron Burr.
Benjamin Franklin wrote a satire, called “Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade,”[11]
in which he dealt with his contemporaries’ justifications for slavery
only he, in order to spotlight the defenders’ hypocrisy, put these same
arguments in the voice of a fictional Muslim, who justified the
enslavement of white Christian slaves.
And
here is the final insult: “The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American
History is working with the producers on an effort to make it possible
for large numbers of New York City schoolchildren to see the show.”
This
is the best argument I know for the establishment of more Afro-Centric
schools and Hispanic schools in order to balance the curriculum promoted
by Euro-Centric schools, in which perpetrators of genocide and slave
holders are honored. Was school integration a mistake? Were these the
brainwashing schools attended by the Latino and Black actors who are
performing in this thing?
The
best argument that I know for the advocacy of such schools came from a
Jewish professor who attended Hebrew School before public schools. When a
public school teacher praised the Crusades, she was able to point out
that the Crusaders set up pogroms.
In the heady times during the slave revolt of the 1960s, the rebels boasted about how they were using the enemy’s language and how they were “stealing his language.” Now things have been turned upside down. Now the masters, the producers of this profit hungry production, which has already made 30 million dollars, are using the slave’s language: Rock and Roll, Rap and Hip Hop to romanticize the careers of kidnappers, and murderers. People, who, like Jefferson, beat and fucked his slaves and spied on their fucking.
In the heady times during the slave revolt of the 1960s, the rebels boasted about how they were using the enemy’s language and how they were “stealing his language.” Now things have been turned upside down. Now the masters, the producers of this profit hungry production, which has already made 30 million dollars, are using the slave’s language: Rock and Roll, Rap and Hip Hop to romanticize the careers of kidnappers, and murderers. People, who, like Jefferson, beat and fucked his slaves and spied on their fucking.
The
very clever salesman for this project is Lin-Manuel Miranda. He
compares Hamilton, a man who engaged in cruel practices against those
who had been kidnapped from their ancestral homes, with that of a slave,
Tupac Shakur. He is making profits for his investors with glib appeals
such as this one. The first week’s box office take was $1,153,386.
Amiri Baraka, the master of irony, your voice is missed.
-------------
-------------
Notes.
[1] “Actresses in ‘Hamilton’ Take a Trip to a Family Home for a History Lesson” James Barron, New York Times, July 13,2015
[2] “Letter From Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec.6, 1813.”
[3]www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h33.html
[4]Nixon’s Piano, Presidents And Racial Politics From Washington To Clinton Kenneth O’Reilly, The Free Press, New York, 1995
[2] “Letter From Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec.6, 1813.”
[3]www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h33.html
[4]Nixon’s Piano, Presidents And Racial Politics From Washington To Clinton Kenneth O’Reilly, The Free Press, New York, 1995
[6] THE INTIMATE LIFE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON; Allan McLane Hamilton
[7] http://www.usnews.com/news/national/articles/2008/06/27/town-destroyer-versus-the-iroquois-indians
[8] ibid.
[9]Reading the Man: A Portrait of Robert E. Lee Through His Private Letters, Elizabeth Brown Pryor.
[10] The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism. Kindle Edition by Edward E. Baptist.
[11]“ Sidi Mehemet Ibrahim on the Slave Trade.” Pow Wow,Charting the Fault Lines in the American Experience-Short Fiction from Then to Now, edited by Ishmael Reed with Carla Blank, Da Capo Press, 2009, New York.
Sunday, July 3, 2016
14. Bay Area authors rock San Francisco Main Library discussion of Black Hollywood unChained anthology
Ancestor Austin C. Clarke, giant of Canadian African literature
On his way to the San Francisco Library, Marvin X was elated when he checked his mail and found a kind note from
Nikki Giovanni, thanking him for informing her Austin joined the
ancestors.
photo Johnnie Burrell
Preface
In Black Hollywood Unchained, Ishmael Reed gathers an impressive group of scholars, critics, intellectuals, and artists to examine and respond to the contemporary portrayals of Blacks in films. Using the 2012 release of the film Django Unchained as the focal point of much of the discussion, these essays and reviews provide a critical perspective on the challenges facing filmmakers and actors when confronted with issues on race and the historical portrayal of African American characters. Reed also addresses the black community's perceptiveness as discerning and responsible consumers of film, theatre, art, and music.
--Justin Mesmangles
On Sunday, July 3, contributing writers to the anthology Black Hollywood unChained, held a spirited discussion on the collection of essays edited by Ishmael Reed, Third World Press, Chicago. The discussion was facilitated by Justin Desmangles who questioned Ishmael Reed, Jesse Allen-Taylor,
Dr. Halifiu Osumare and Marvin X. It was sponsored by Before the Columbus Foundation and the African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library, and videoed for later broadcast by Johnnie Burrell of International Media TV.Com. It will air on July 9 and available on Youtube.
Justin Desmangles, Chair of Before Columbus Foundation, journalist, poet, posed questions to the authors based on their essays. We must await the video for an accurate narration of the event but one question was why must Hollywood continues writing our stories that they can only tell from the white supremacy mythological viewpoint. Jews would not let Nazis write their history, although it was noted Jews take the liberty to narrate North American African history or the white version of it that is nothing less than pure fantasy or stories from the white world of make believe. Jesse Allen-Tayor said Black actors are essentially whores who are pimped by producers and are so desperate for roles they will perform anything, no matter how demeaning and despicable.
Dr. Halifu Osumare explained when the book project began, it was focused on the film Django but evolved into a general discussion on the condition of Blacks in Hollywood. Halifu noted how director Tarantino used the Yoruba myth of Oshun to depict the Black woman as goddess, although she wasn't sure the director had knowledge of Yoruba mythology. She also appreciated how the woman was freed by her man and road to freedom on her own horse to show a certain level of independence yet in harmony with her man.
Marvin X said the story of an individual Black man saving his woman is noble but insufficient because we need stories of communal liberation rather than individual. Referring to his essay, Justin asked Marvin X about the traumatic slave syndrome of the oppressed as described in modern times by Dr. Frantz Fanon. Marvin X said, firstly, Elder Ed Howard, a founding member of Oakland's Afro-American Association, has called for us not to use the term slaves but rather say we were/are Africans caught in the American Slave System. Marvin X said we are still suffering from the traumatic stress of the American slave system. Upon emancipation, we had no therapy and still have none. Justin noted how the nine people were killed in the North Charleston church, South Carolina and what this says about how religion is used to pacify us to the degree we immediately ask forgiveness and mercy for the killer. Marvin replied that their mentality shows the degree of addiction to white supremacy religion. The Southern Blacks still live in fear, Marvin said. For example, when he finished writing How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy in Beaufort, South California and went to Staples for copies, the clerk asked where he was from? He told the Black sister, I'm from here, but she said no you're not. When he asked why she doubted him, she replied because we don't say White Supremacy down here, we know it but don't say it. This reveals a pervasive level of fear disguised as manners.
Jesse-Allen-Taylor would have none of putting down of the South. He's lived in South Carolina and is the author of a novel on South Carolina, Sugarie Rising, and he noted a unique town north of Charleston that had no Confederate statues and that there were people still resisting white supremacy.
Marvin said one of his last book tours through South Carolina his hosts told him to shut up and don't say nothing while you're here, and furthermore, we are not going to give you a book party or help you promote your book, just enjoy yourself and go on up the road. Marvin said he did as his hosts ordered which gave him time to visit the African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina. He noted the young Yoruba King's father was from Harlem and helped spread Yoruba culture throughout the United States. Halifu Osumare agreed the Yoruba King in South Carolina is highly respected, including a visit from the Oba of Ife, Nigeria. It was asked why don't more writers utilize African mythology in their work. Marvin recalled that in the play A Black Mass, Amiri Baraka utilized myths from Islam (the myth of Yakub) and Yoruba mythology. Baraka had studied the Yoruba religion as did many poets and writers during the Black Arts Movement. The founding Oba of Olatunji Village married Amiri and Amina Baraka.
Justin probed for more religious influences in North American African culture. Panelists replied the Catholic church has made ample use of Yoruba and Vudun in their services and even the Protestant religious community employ the Holy Ghost ritual similar to riding the god. Ishmael Reed noted how many writers have researched and studied Yoruba and Vudun myth-rituals in our culture, especially Katharyn Dunham. During the Q and A, videographer Ken Johnson stated he wished we would explain more of this mythology because he'd never heard of Yemanja or Oshun and would like to know.
Ishmael, whom we graciously acknowledge as one of our Master writers or griots ,who has overwhelming knowledge of European and African mythology, yet he admitted ignorance of African revolts against the slave system. Marvin told Ishmael and the audience to check out the History Channels documentary Slave Catchers and Resisters, also Negro Slave Revolts by Herbert Aptheker.
Jesse Allen-Taylor said the truth is that there was almost daily resistance to the American Slave System. When the Roots and Neo-Roots films series came into the discussion, Halifu said the original Roots had the positive because for the first time many Blacks and Whites got some understanding of the American Holocaust, and this was a good thing. Marvin X replied, I don't want to see no more films about slavery, only resistance. "Show me Toussaint, Garbriel Prosser, Nat Turner, Denmark Vessey. If I go to one more movie about slavery, I might kill some white people." He quoted Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, in which the character Clay says, "If Bessie Smith had killed some white people, she wouldn't have needed to sing the Blues, she could have talked very straignt and plain about the world."
Ishmael Reed was asked about his review of the Broadway musical Hamilton. Ishmael said it was a scam, pure and simple. He said his research revealed Hamilton was a slave owner, not an abolitionist as the original text claimed. Hamilton had slaves and so did his wife. Thus Hamilton is a thousand dollar ticket scam and a reverse of the Black Arts Movement revolution. Hamilton put Black and minority actors in the costumes of the Slave Masters and it ain't even Halloween. Ishmael noted in his review that at least during the Black Arts Movement of the 60s, writers took the language of the master and flipped it, but in Hamilton they took the Hip Hop poetry and rap and put it in the mouth of the slave masters!
In Black Hollywood Unchained, Ishmael Reed gathers an impressive group of scholars, critics, intellectuals, and artists to examine and respond to the contemporary portrayals of Blacks in films. Using the 2012 release of the film Django Unchained as the focal point of much of the discussion, these essays and reviews provide a critical perspective on the challenges facing filmmakers and actors when confronted with issues on race and the historical portrayal of African American characters. Reed also addresses the black community's perceptiveness as discerning and responsible consumers of film, theatre, art, and music.
--Justin Mesmangles
On Sunday, July 3, contributing writers to the anthology Black Hollywood unChained, held a spirited discussion on the collection of essays edited by Ishmael Reed, Third World Press, Chicago. The discussion was facilitated by Justin Desmangles who questioned Ishmael Reed, Jesse Allen-Taylor,
Dr. Halifiu Osumare and Marvin X. It was sponsored by Before the Columbus Foundation and the African American Center of the San Francisco Public Library, and videoed for later broadcast by Johnnie Burrell of International Media TV.Com. It will air on July 9 and available on Youtube.
Justin Desmangles, Chair of Before Columbus Foundation, journalist, poet, posed questions to the authors based on their essays. We must await the video for an accurate narration of the event but one question was why must Hollywood continues writing our stories that they can only tell from the white supremacy mythological viewpoint. Jews would not let Nazis write their history, although it was noted Jews take the liberty to narrate North American African history or the white version of it that is nothing less than pure fantasy or stories from the white world of make believe. Jesse Allen-Tayor said Black actors are essentially whores who are pimped by producers and are so desperate for roles they will perform anything, no matter how demeaning and despicable.
Dr. Halifu Osumare explained when the book project began, it was focused on the film Django but evolved into a general discussion on the condition of Blacks in Hollywood. Halifu noted how director Tarantino used the Yoruba myth of Oshun to depict the Black woman as goddess, although she wasn't sure the director had knowledge of Yoruba mythology. She also appreciated how the woman was freed by her man and road to freedom on her own horse to show a certain level of independence yet in harmony with her man.
Marvin X said the story of an individual Black man saving his woman is noble but insufficient because we need stories of communal liberation rather than individual. Referring to his essay, Justin asked Marvin X about the traumatic slave syndrome of the oppressed as described in modern times by Dr. Frantz Fanon. Marvin X said, firstly, Elder Ed Howard, a founding member of Oakland's Afro-American Association, has called for us not to use the term slaves but rather say we were/are Africans caught in the American Slave System. Marvin X said we are still suffering from the traumatic stress of the American slave system. Upon emancipation, we had no therapy and still have none. Justin noted how the nine people were killed in the North Charleston church, South Carolina and what this says about how religion is used to pacify us to the degree we immediately ask forgiveness and mercy for the killer. Marvin replied that their mentality shows the degree of addiction to white supremacy religion. The Southern Blacks still live in fear, Marvin said. For example, when he finished writing How to Recover from the Addiction to White Supremacy in Beaufort, South California and went to Staples for copies, the clerk asked where he was from? He told the Black sister, I'm from here, but she said no you're not. When he asked why she doubted him, she replied because we don't say White Supremacy down here, we know it but don't say it. This reveals a pervasive level of fear disguised as manners.
Jesse-Allen-Taylor would have none of putting down of the South. He's lived in South Carolina and is the author of a novel on South Carolina, Sugarie Rising, and he noted a unique town north of Charleston that had no Confederate statues and that there were people still resisting white supremacy.
Marvin said one of his last book tours through South Carolina his hosts told him to shut up and don't say nothing while you're here, and furthermore, we are not going to give you a book party or help you promote your book, just enjoy yourself and go on up the road. Marvin said he did as his hosts ordered which gave him time to visit the African Village in Sheldon, South Carolina. He noted the young Yoruba King's father was from Harlem and helped spread Yoruba culture throughout the United States. Halifu Osumare agreed the Yoruba King in South Carolina is highly respected, including a visit from the Oba of Ife, Nigeria. It was asked why don't more writers utilize African mythology in their work. Marvin recalled that in the play A Black Mass, Amiri Baraka utilized myths from Islam (the myth of Yakub) and Yoruba mythology. Baraka had studied the Yoruba religion as did many poets and writers during the Black Arts Movement. The founding Oba of Olatunji Village married Amiri and Amina Baraka.
Justin probed for more religious influences in North American African culture. Panelists replied the Catholic church has made ample use of Yoruba and Vudun in their services and even the Protestant religious community employ the Holy Ghost ritual similar to riding the god. Ishmael Reed noted how many writers have researched and studied Yoruba and Vudun myth-rituals in our culture, especially Katharyn Dunham. During the Q and A, videographer Ken Johnson stated he wished we would explain more of this mythology because he'd never heard of Yemanja or Oshun and would like to know.
Ishmael, whom we graciously acknowledge as one of our Master writers or griots ,who has overwhelming knowledge of European and African mythology, yet he admitted ignorance of African revolts against the slave system. Marvin told Ishmael and the audience to check out the History Channels documentary Slave Catchers and Resisters, also Negro Slave Revolts by Herbert Aptheker.
Jesse Allen-Taylor said the truth is that there was almost daily resistance to the American Slave System. When the Roots and Neo-Roots films series came into the discussion, Halifu said the original Roots had the positive because for the first time many Blacks and Whites got some understanding of the American Holocaust, and this was a good thing. Marvin X replied, I don't want to see no more films about slavery, only resistance. "Show me Toussaint, Garbriel Prosser, Nat Turner, Denmark Vessey. If I go to one more movie about slavery, I might kill some white people." He quoted Amiri Baraka's Dutchman, in which the character Clay says, "If Bessie Smith had killed some white people, she wouldn't have needed to sing the Blues, she could have talked very straignt and plain about the world."
Ishmael Reed was asked about his review of the Broadway musical Hamilton. Ishmael said it was a scam, pure and simple. He said his research revealed Hamilton was a slave owner, not an abolitionist as the original text claimed. Hamilton had slaves and so did his wife. Thus Hamilton is a thousand dollar ticket scam and a reverse of the Black Arts Movement revolution. Hamilton put Black and minority actors in the costumes of the Slave Masters and it ain't even Halloween. Ishmael noted in his review that at least during the Black Arts Movement of the 60s, writers took the language of the master and flipped it, but in Hamilton they took the Hip Hop poetry and rap and put it in the mouth of the slave masters!
Ishmael mentioned that Malcolm X was less than truthful when he claimed it was in Mecca that he discovered blue-eyed devil Muslims who exercised true Islamic brotherhood. He noted Malcolm had met blue-eyed Muslims in New York at the United Nations, so his letter from Mecca is a sham and Marvin X agreed. As per Islamic brotherhood, Marvin X interjected, "My friends, including members of the Last Poets, made their pilgrimage to Mecca forced to ride in the back of the bus from Amman, Jordan to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, forced by white racist Turkish Muslims who were then made to pay a fee for disrespecting the Black Muslims from America. And just as 11AM Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in Christian American, 1PM Friday is the most segregated hour in Muslim America.
--Marvin X
Left to Right: Justin Desmangles, Jesse Allen-Taylor, Dr. Halifu Osumare, Marvin X, Ishmael Reed
photo Johnnie Burrell
Supreme artistic freedom fighter, ancestor Paul Robeson
15. Zahieb Mwongozi: Lines in the Sand: Rebecca Kaplan Draws Out Cowardly Council
Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan
There's
a Hadith (one of various reports describing the words, actions, or
habits of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad*) that reports him being asked
"Who do you help most, the one who is doing right or the one who is
doing wrong?"
Muhammad reportedly answered "You help them both equally."
"How do you help the one that's doing right?" he was asked. "Guide his hands." "What about the one that's doing wrong?"
He replied "Hold his hands."
This
week's edition of the Oakland Post reported such a dichotomy existing
in the Oakland City Council when reporter Tulio Ospino wrote that the
Oakland community overwhelmingly backs council-member Rebecca Kaplan's
Renter Protection Proposal over a watered down version offered by
council president Lynette Gibson McElhaney.
Ospino reports that Lynette Gibson McElhaney's
version would delay tenant protections for one or two years whereas
Kaplan's bill has the support of tenant rights activists, labor unions
and the renter protection coalition who submitted the original bill.
So just whose hands are being held by whom? Why would Lynette Gibson McElhaney,
the council president, ostensibly a step or two away from the Mayor's
office, want to proffer a measure that gives comfort and cushion to
landlords while Rebecca Kaplan
who ran for mayor but lost is obviously on the side of those who need
relief most (namely the renters and displaced people of the Town)?
Who do you help most, the one who is doing right or the one who is doing wrong?
Clearly
two things are at work here, both of which we have an opportunity to
influence come election time. The first thing is that we obviously have
the WRONG mayor. Rebecca Kaplan
should be the mayor and would have been in my opinion were it not for
the shortsighted bigotry and sexism that kept Oaklanders from ratifying
her run for the office. In fact, I'm almost certain that had Kaplan
waited until after the election to get married she would have ruled the
day last election. Oakland is decidedly conservative and fickle when it
comes to the relationship between power, leadership and the LGBTQ
community. I am almost as certain that there is no love lost between
Kaplan and former Mayor Jerry Brown who is the current mayor's mentor.
Which is another part of the same dichotomy.
Jerry
Brown was elected because he was the proverbial "inside-outsider". Town
folks were disheartened after Ron Dellums' tenure as mayor and
mistakenly felt that we needed a change after having a homeboy as mayor
who proved to be too isolated and insulated to be an effective mayor of a
city that was going through the growing pains Oakland was experiencing
at the time. Brown's solution to Oakland's pressing issues was to just
replace and "re-face" Oakland and so we had the fiasco we call the Jean
Quan mayoral experience and that brings us to where we are today with
another inside-outsider as mayor of Oakland.
With
Kaplan's renter protection proposal she delineates who is doing right
from who is doing wrong. The landlords and developers who have their
eyes on Oakland are very simply put, OUTSIDERS who don't give a rat's
whizz about the PEOPLE of Oakland, they just want to strip the carcass
and take all of the the choice bits left that the Town has to offer.
Meanwhile,
Gibson MsElhaney is holding the hands of the gentrifiers and vultures
circling above Oakland, while obviously eying the mayor's seat as she
and her handlers smell the rotting carcass coming from the Mayor's
office.
It's
glaringly obvious to me and many others that many of Oakland's council
members represent those who are not doing right by the city of Oakland
and as we look forward to the next election and at both Kaplan and
Gibson McElhaney it's clear to me that we can help them both equally; by
holding one's hand up in victory as the next mayor of Oakland and
holding the other's hand while leading her to the exit at city hall.
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