I’m biased, but AJR—the winner of an Mirror Award for Overall Excellence from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications—can be a very good magazine when it wants to be. It’s a solid resource for its targeted audience—the small group of white men (and some white women) who guide American mainstream journalism. It’s important to point out, however, that the percentage of white females who write for it, and/or help manage it, has traditionally been VERY strong.
 
Veteran multimedia journalist Askia Muhammad has done something extraordinary. Over the last few years, he’s somehow gotten Soundprint, the nation’s premier public radio documentary series, to “publish” his autobiography, an audio chapter at a time.
Together these programs form a well-told mosaic of a life, filled with sound and soul.
Congrats, Askia, on this great and significant accomplishment.
 
From Kalamu, by Kalamu (partially).
Dear Friends and Allies,
South End Press has just released a powerful new anthology of post-Katrina writing called “WHAT LIES BENEATH: Katrina, Race, and the State of The Nation.”
The book features a new piece I wrote about race, reconstruction, and community organizing in New Orleans post-Katrina, as well as several excellent contributions by an impressive and inspiring array of writers, poets, teachers and organizers.
I will be participating in two book release events in the next few weeks—one in New York City, and one in New Orleans. For those of you in one of those cities, I hope you’ll come out. See below for more details on the events, and on the book.
In solidarity,
Jordan
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New York City Book Release Event
Thursday, May 24, 7:00PM
Discussion on Katrina, Race and Resistance, featuring Jordan Flaherty and Eric Tang. (see below for bios) Presentation will also include new video from New Orleans.
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street between Stanton and Rivington :: 212.777.6028
http://www.bluestockings.com/New Orleans Book Release Event
Friday, June 8, 6:00PM
Panel and discussion, featuring contributing authors Kalamu Ya Salaam, Mayaba Liebenthal, and Jordan Flaherty.
Community Book Center
2523 Bayou Rd (near Broad and Esplanade) (504) 948-7323“We who live below the water line have no choice. Our first priority is to survive. Our second priority is to struggle. Our ultimate responsibility is to win. Survive. Struggle. Win. This book is a record of these efforts.”
—Kalamu Ya Salaam, from the Introduction
More about the book:
With an eye toward community organizing and radical scholarship, this accessible anthology is both a people’s history and a collective vision for the future of New Orleans.
Contributors include: Kalamu Ya Salaam, Charmaine Neville, INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, Jordan Flaherty, Suheir Hammad, Common Ground, and Lewis Lapham.
“What Lies Beneath” rests on the premise that Hurricane Katrina mirrors with terrible poignancy the state of a nation—a damning and bitterly accurate portrait of everyday life in America. Despite a chorus of claims to the contrary, Hurricane Katrina was not an equal opportunity disaster. Its asymmetrical impact on people’s lives vis-a-vis their relative place within the matrix of oppression cannot be denied. If your life was hard before the hurricane, it was exponentially harder during and after the storm—and remains so up to this day. For those who suffer daily the existing, pervasive, and insidious social inequities that are the US reality, Katrina was not an anomaly. It was simply business as usual.
“‘What Lies Beneath’ will keep us thinking for a long time about what happened, why it happened, and provoke us to examine honestly the nature of the society in which we live.”
— Howard Zinn, author, “A People’s History of the United States”“‘What Lies Beneath’ tells the real story of those abandoned to face Hurricane Katrina, and reveals the people’s uprising that provided shelter, aid, and comfort where there would be none.”
—Jeff Chang, author, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”About the authors/presenters:
Mayaba Liebenthal is a Black feminist, anarchist, human rights advocate and community organizer committed to creating projects/institutions that support self-determined and sustainable community development.
Kalamu Ya Salaam is a poet, writer, editor, teacher, filmmaker, arts administrator and co-director of Students at the Center, an independent writing program that works within New Orleans public high schools.
Eric Tang was Associate Director at CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, serving as a community organizer in the refugee neighborhoods of the Bronx, New York. The author of numerous essays and articles on Southeast Asian refugee politics, community activism, and social movement theory, Tang teaches at the Worker Education Center of CUNY. Eric’s writing in ColorLines Magazine shared a journalism award from New America Media for best Katrina-related coverage in the Ethnic press.
Jordan Flaherty is a writer and community organizer based in New Orleans. He is an editor of Left Turn magazine and has written about politics and culture for The Village Voice, New York Press, Labor Notes, Radical Society, and in several books. Jordan’s articles from the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina have appeared in periodicals around the world, including Die Zeit in Germany, Clarin in Argentina, Juventude Rebelde in Cuba, Red Pepper in England, and many more. His writing in ColorLines magazine shared a journalism award from New America Media for best Katrina-related coverage in the Ethnic press.
For more information or to purchase a copy of “What Lies Beneath,” click here.
A portion of the proceeds from What Lies Beneath will be donated to The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition.
But first, a little text.
Hip-Hop and the Corporate Function of Colonization
Jared A. Ball, Ph.D.
Green Institute Communications Fellow
Having elsewhere looked at the function of mass media as primary mechanisms of the maintenance of colony, recent events have again emerged requiring further investigation into the function of corporate control over the cultural expression of colonized populations. Though not specific to hip-hop the example as explored through that most popular of cultural expressions may help to make more clear the imperative of organization and political struggle in 2007. Within the last few weeks alone we have seen recent decisions and trends evolve demonstrating the intent and need among those in power to further ensure that mass media will perform its primary (only?) function of manipulating popular consciousness for the purpose of manipulating behavior of the audience (victims). These developments can only be understood in the context of a continuing process of subjugation in which media play a primary role in suppressing dissent.
Click here for the entire article
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VOXUNION MEDIA
voxunion.com
FreeMix Radio
May 28, 2007A special statement and call to action regarding the Copyright Royalty Board, copyright law and intellectual property rights as they relate to a lock down of our cultural expression and thought. The recent ruling of the Copyright Royalty Board threatens to further limit our ability to communicate freely. The decision has already caused VOXUNION MEDIA to cease our online archive of our Pacifica Network radio show here in Washington, DC, threatens to force into bankruptcy roughly 85% of all internet radio stations and continues to demonstrate the importance and necessity of FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show. Click here to listen to our special report/announcement regarding this concern. Stream options and more available at voxunion.com.
VOXUNION MEDIA
voxunion.com
FreeMix Radio
May 10, 2007We sat down with Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies to talk about the Black/White Wealth Divide. Click here for this first of an on-going series where we look at the actual economic condition of African America and how this relates, is essential to, the political economy of the United States. Stream options and more available at voxunion.com.
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VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz & Justice
WPFW 89.3 FM wpfw.org (live stream)April 16, 2007
Today we discussed DC Emancipation Day and its international implications with our guests Rick and Michelle Tingling-Clemens. We also heard music from Gil Scott Heron, Jayne Cortez, DJ EuRok, NYOIL, Head-Roc, Eddie Kane, Freddie Hubbard and more. We also heard clips from Dr. James Turner of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. Here’s the first part, and here’s the second. Visit voxunion.com for the stream/download options and much more.
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VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz & Justice
WPFW 89.3 FM Washington, DC
wpfw.org
Mondays 1-3p ESTThis week was part 2 of our tribute to Malcolm X and part 1 of our two-week pledge drive. We were joined in studio by Dr. Todd Burroughs as we paid homage to Malcolm and Mumia Abu-Jamal all the while spinning music from Wu-Tang Clan, Archie Shepp, Mos Def, Vijay Iyer, Nex Millen and more. We also aired rarely heard audio from the documentary “Brother Minister” and speeches on Malcolm X and his image by Amiri Baraka and Dhoruba Bin-Wahad. Download the show by clicking the links here and/or visit voxunion.com for stream options and much more.Â
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VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz & Justice
WPFW 89.3 FM Mondays 1-3p EST
wpfw.orgThis week we conclude our portion of the pledge drive. Thank you all for your support. But we did this in style. Head-Roc joined the show to donate his Negrophobia album as a thank you gift and we chopped it up with his music and that of Archie Shepp, Killer Mike, Charles Mingus, Asheru, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane and much more. We talked about the Black Power movement and mass media, Black “leadership,” DC’s underrepresented views of war protest, the music industry and more. Click to download parts 1 and 2and visit voxunion.com for stream/download options, show archives and much more.
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VOXUNION MEDIA
FreeMix Radio
March 21, 2007The Hip-Hop Caucus Launches its Make Hip-Hop Not War Tour
Reverend Lennox Yearwood and the Hip-Hop Caucus was in DC this week to launch their “Make Hip-Hop Not War” tour.  FreeMix Radio was there and caught up with some of the artists involved, including Head-Roc, Hasan Salaam, DJ Chela, A Alikes, ReadNex Poetry Squad and Akir. For more, visit hiphopcaucus.org.Â
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VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz & Justice
WPFW 89.3 FM Mondays 1-3p (EST)
wpfw.orgThis week we completed our winter pledge drive by having a discussion of political organizing with Bill Fletcher. We also played portions of an interview with Soffiyah Elijah and Claude Marks of the Committee for the Defense of Human Rights who are currently working to free the eight former Black Panthers arrested in January on 35 year-old charges.  We also heard music from Head-Roc, Charles Mingus, Pharaoh Sanders, Amina and Amiri Baraka, Nikki Giovanni, Mos Def and more. To download the show, click here and here and visit voxunion.com for much more, including the latest from Roots Revolution. That show paid tribute to Burning Spear and honored Woman’s History Month by airing words from Angela Davis.
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VOXUNION MEDIA
FreeMix Radio: The Original Mixtape Radio Show (FM9)FM9 is here! The mixtape as emancipatory journalism is hitting the streets but we do make an online version available for download here and at www.voxunion.com, where you can get both the stream and download options.
Track List/Liner Notes
1. Cartman declares a race war
2. Kidnap the President’s Wife – Shout to DJ Jaheye and Hello… My Name is Capitalism (the mixtape).
3. Wack Media Takeover – a mix from the Borough to Borough mixtape by DJs Al Dente and Cut Chemist
4. NIGGERS! and X-Clan’s Black Boot Stompin’ followed by part one of our East of the River interviews on the Iraq war and war protest in DC
5. That’s Life – Killer Mike
6. Claude Marks and Soffiyah Elijah of Center for the Defense of Human Rights (cdhrsupport.org) talk about the San Francisco 8 and the re-arrest of Black Panthers to suppress political dissent and rebellion
7. Classic – KRS-One and Rakim
8. Part two of the East of the River interviews and specifically the treatment of young Black people by the police in DC
9. Public Service Announcement remix – Omekongo and D’Mite
This is a dope go-go influenced remix of Jay-Z’s classic but with a very different content
10. V is for Vendetta – Everyone should see this film a nd understand the context of this track
11. Black Power and Media – Head-Roc and The Funkinest Journalist explain the historical relationship between mass media and Black struggle. This is a clip from “Jazz and Justice,” which airs on WPFW 89.3 FM every Monday from 1-3p and is archived at voxunion.com
12. L.A. – Murs – Murs is just nice.
13. Media “Reform” – comments from the National Conference on Media Reform and why Black and Latino people need to be more involved in the production of media and in media criticism. Voices include Oriana Bolden and Rosa Clemente.
14. I’m Him – NEW! – Wise Intelligent
15. Black World Imagery – more from Jazz and Justice this time with Michelle Stephens and Suzette Gardner during our tribute to Bob Marley talk about the construction of Black image.
16. Jesse Jackson is not the emperor of Black people! – Napolean’s Dynamite – Mos Def
17. Class and Black Women – part of an old FreeMix interview with Elaine Brown former head of the Black Panther Party.
18. Payola – Paul Porter of IndustryEars.com talks about the latest in payola
19. Mind is Free – NEW! – Hasan Salaam. More great music from this unheralded emcee.
20. Martha’s Table Teen Program – an interview with Tim Jones and his work with DC youth.
21. Who Shot Rudy? – Screwball gets in trouble for making a song that talks about a dream that Rudy Giuliani gets shot. You can shoot Black people, smack women, pimp, sell dope and all that but don’t get it twisted into thinking we are free. It was all a dream…
22. Modern Day Slavery – Joell Ortiz and Immortal Technique – We’re Young Lords!
23. Outro and contact information
24. Whites Win!
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Amos Wilson
James Turner
VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz and Justice
March 26, 2007
WPFW 89.3 FM Mondays 1-3p ESTThis week we heard from Drs. Amos Wilson and James Turner andÂ
community thoughts on yet another “nigger!” incident. This plus music from legendary DC poet Face, Naima Jamal, new KRS-One, Gil Scott-Heron, The Coup and more. Download the show here and here or visit voxunion.com for stream/download options and much more.
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Jazz and Justice
April 2, 2007
WPFW 89.3 FM Mondays 1-3p EST
wpfw.orgThis week we were joined by Obi Egbuna of the Pan-African Liberation Organization and Head-Roc for a discussion of Zimbabwe and pan-Africanism. We also heard from Kwame Ture plus music from John Coltrane, Dead-Prez, Roy Ayers, Sonny Fortune, Bob Marley, The Coup and more. To download click here and here and visit voxunion.com for stream/download options and more.
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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! Words, Beats and Life/Global Journal of Hip-Hop Culture has launched its new website. Educators in need of a great hip-hop-based teaching tool and those looking to expand their own horizons will find this, the original hip-hop academic journal, to be a powerful resource.
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VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz and Justice
WPFW 89.3 FM Washington, DC
Mondays 1-3p EST
Live Online wpfw.orgThis week we celebrated the Spring Equinox (some call it “passover” or “easter”) and the birthday of Paul Robeson. We heard music from John Coltrane, The Els featuring Asheru, Julius Hemphill, Oscar Peterson, KRS-One, Charles Earland, Common and Alice Coltrane. The celebration included a look at the African origins of major Western religion by Charles Finch and Brother Tehuti. All this plus the world premier of “Heru Walks,” a remix of Kanye’s original, by Kasba.  Download the show here and here and visit voxunion.com for the stream/download options and much more.
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VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz & Justice
WPFW 89.3 FM wpfw.org (live stream)
April 16, 2007Today we discussed DC Emancipation Day and its international implications with our guests Rick and Michelle Tingling-Clemens.  We also heard music from Gil Scott Heron, Jayne Cortez, DJ EuRok, NYOIL, Head-Roc, Eddie Kane, Freddie Hubbard and more. We also heard clips from Dr. James Turner of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University. Download the clips here and here and visit voxunion.com for the stream/download options and much more.
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VOXUNION MEDIA
Jazz and Justice
WPFW 89.3FM Pacifica Radio Washington, DC
Mondays 1-3p EST (wpfw.org live stream)This week Lisa Fager of Industry Ears and students from the University of Maryland joined the show to talk about their research monitoring commercial hip-hop radio. We heard music from The Welfare Poets, Hugh Masekela, Abbey Lincoln, ReadNex, Fertile Ground, Immortal Technique, A Tribe Called Quest, Eric Dolphy and much more.Â
We also heard from Dr. Greg Kimanthi Carr and portions of his remarks at this week’s conference of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization (ASCAC). Download the show here and here and visit voxunion.com for stream/download options plus much more.
1) Lana’s not dead. She pulled a David Copperfield, and got into that vehicle that was passing by her car.
(Aside: Folks on the Web LOVE to hate Lana. But she’s too beautiful to hate. 🙂 )
2) Chloe will either be dead, alive or dead-but-a-permanent-part-of-Lois. And wouldn’t the third be crazy??? From the very beginning, some rabid “Smallville” fans have been theorizing that somehow Chloe would morph into Lois. Erica Durance joining the show killed that idea……until now. Hmmm…….. 🙂 I love Chloe, but her essence transfer would be a “solution” to the problem of her on this show—taking up Lois’ historic space. And it would give this Lois a boost in the attributes and characteristics she needs to be a proper part of the Superman mythos.
3) Lionel’s not dead. Just knocked out.
4) Clark will find a way to kick Bizarro‘s ass, and he won’t put on a costume to do it.
5) This was a strong ending to a weak season.
May 18th UPDATE: Understand that Chloe’s alive and will be on next season.
Says Al Gough, “Smallville”‘s executive producer, in this interview (which I didn’t read carefully enough yesterday):
The idea that Chloe had a power was always something in the back of our minds, but we didn’t want it to be a cheap trick, we wanted the audience to be invested in the character and her relationship with Clark, and if we were going to do it, it was to deepen the character, which we think it does, and will allow us to keep exploring Chloe in season 7. You’ll see her power first manifest in the season finale.
Okay, there goes the theory. For now. 🙂
P.S. I guess it means NOBODY died after all. Oh, well, I would cry “gyp,” but it was an entertaining hour, so…….
I LOVE newsreels, so this made my day. 🙂
Enjoyed Studs Terkel being interviewed today on “Democracy Now!” I’ve wanted to be the next coming of Studs for at least 15 years now. Happy 95th Birthday, Studs!
Wanted to post some excerpts I particularly enjoyed. So here they are.
I’m known as a poet of the tape recorder, right? The fact is I have no idea how the hell it works. I’m terrible, I’m a nut, mechanically. I can’t drive a car. I can’t ride a bike. I don’t know what “internet†means, or “website.†Google is an old-time comic strip — “Barney Google†— with his goo-goo-googly eyes.
Â
And so, you see, I’m not up on all the current stuff. And people say, “Boy, on that tape recorder, you capture those people.†No, they capture themselves, because I am inept. That comes out quite clearly.
Sometimes I turn the wrong button down. And that person in the housing project, she sees it doesn’t work, and she reminds me of it. And as I say, “Oh, I goofed,†at that moment, she is my equal or better than my equal. In other words, I am not, whoever it is, [inaudible], “Today” or “60 Minutes” or Kathy, whoever she is. It’s me, a guy who’s in trouble, and she helps me out. And so, I’m playing this tape recorder for this woman, very poor, very pretty. I don’t know whether she’s white or black. In those days, the early public housing projects were all mixed. And these little kids running around want to hear their mama’s voice on this new machine. And so, I’m playing it back, and she’s hearing her voice for the first time in her life, and suddenly she says, “Oh, my god!†And I say, “What is it?†She said, “I never thought I felt that way before.†Well, that’s an astonishing moment for her and for me, one you might say are fellow travelers together. So that’s the exciting stuff. She discovers that she does have a voice, that she counts.
The key word, by the way, in all of these people is they must feel they “count.†Nick von Hoffman, the columnist, used to work for the organizer Saul Alinsky, and he said once people get in a group and that group thinks as they do, he feels he counts or she counts more than alone. And so, that’s what it’s about.
AMY GOODMAN: What do you want them to think of when someone says “Studs Terkel�
STUDS TERKEL: I want them to think of somebody who remembers them, to be remembered, whether it be me or anyone else. They want Studs Terkel, maybe as somebody — I’m romanticizing myself now — somebody who gave me hope. One of my books is Hope Dies Last. Without hope, forget it. It’s hope and thought, and that can counting. That’s what it’s about. That’s what I hope I’m about.
With Yolanda King, two things immediately come to mind. Funtown, and her work with Attallah Shabazz.
Yoki did get to go to Funtown with her father eventually, by the way. Now she’s with back with him, performing in the Realm of the Ancestors.
Asante Sana, Yolanda King.
5:51 P.M. UPDATE: Just got this from Rev. Forrest Pritchett, a great friend and mentor of mine. He is the advisor of the Martin Luther King Scholarship Association—the group of select undergraduates of my alma mater, Seton Hall University, who are the recipients of a full, four-year renewable scholarship there in MLK’s name.
I am sad to notify all of my associates of the passing of the oldest child of Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Yolanda King.
Yolanda and I were personal friends and she was a powerful spokesperson for issues pertaining to her father’s legacy and other issues of civil rights.
In 1983, we presented a dramatic production created by Yolanda and Attallah Shabazz, the oldest daughter of Malcolm X, at Seton Hall University’s Theatre in the Round. Yolanda was also the keynote speaker for one of our MLK birthday commemorations at Seton Hall. We were recently discussing the possibility of her coming to New Jersey next February.
May she find peace in the presence of the saviour.
II Corinthians 1:3 – 4
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles,
so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.
