https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67083432
https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/bbc-protest-refusing-hamas-terrorists-israel-1235758237/
Meanwhile, on Al-Jazeera English…..
….is another example of something very specific that I didn’t know I missed so much. The cast has changed but the tone and tenor are so reassuringly familiar that I’m won over.
JOHANNA FERNANDEZ: Can you imagine a study of slavery without the slave narrative?
ANGELA Y. DAVIS: Movements create a backlash, and backlash is part of the movement of history.
JULIA WRIGHT: I was just mesmerized by that cell.
LINN WASHINGTON, Jr.: That was his “house” for 28 years!
ME: Wow! A perfect replica!
STEVEN BERNHAUT, member, People’s Organization for Progress: Except for the window. That’s for us.
ME (Feeling Like An Idiot 😉 ): Right!
FERNANDEZ: The erosion of freedom erodes the standard of freedom for all of us.
WASHINGTON: I’m just awed by the way this exhibit has been put together. The phases of it. His activism. His literary productions.
CHRISTOPHER WEST, exhibit curator: There’s something about Mumia…It’s been magic since the beginning.
(Photos by LBWPhoto)
OCTOBER 3rd UPDATE: My article on the conference can be found here.
OCTOBER 8th UPDATE: And Linn Washington’s article is here.
OCTOBER 24th UPDATE: This audio allows everyone to hear the people behind the archive, exhibit and conference.
OCTOBER 25th UPDATE: Here’s my panel.
VAMPIRE NATION
From the very beginning
To this very day;
This country has gone–its own special way;
from placing Indians in chains and graves;
to bringing Africans–across the waves;
********
How can we call this freedom’s land?
When it was built by slavery’s hand!
From 1492 many millions were slew;
From the day Co-lumbus sailed ocean blue.
This is–this is–a Vampire Nation!
Been that way since its creation!
This is–this is–a Vampire Nation!
I sing it without exaggeration!
*********
But why call it Vampire Nation?
It ain’t Dracula’s generation;
‘Cause America was old before that story got told;
They came in a flood, to feed on each other’s blood;
They bled Cherokee, Ashanti, Arapaho & Mandingo;
Worked ’em ’till they were no mo’;
Runnin’ ’em from shore to shore!
***********
Why call it Vampire Nation?
It ain’t Dracula’s generation;
This is–this is–a Vampire Nation!
Been that way since its creation!
This is–this is–a Vampire Nation!
Call it out–no hesitation!
@ Copyright Mumia Abu-Jamal
As performed at the Brown University conference.
OCTOBER 29th UPDATE: And here’s the video of the Brown session with the song:
As the ultimate David Tennant-as-10th-Doctor fan, I can’t explain to you how much I am against his return. So I can’t tell you how happy this trailer makes me!!! LMAO!!!!!
(For those who need catching up: Previously…..)
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🙂
(JULY 13th, 2025 INSERT:
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(AUGUST 3, 2025 INSERT:
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…..Saturday mornings on ABC became appointment television for millions of 1970s children across America. (All this and Scooby-Doo and Schoolhouse Rock, too!)
🙂
Oh, an important societal note:
If you want to see a 1973 future-forecast prediction of Amazon.com, streaming services allowing people to stay home, etc., please find and watch all of the first-season episode “Professor Goodfellow’s G.E.E.C.” Two small excerpts:
Drums in the Global Village 