Category Archives: news
Take A Look Inside A Replica of #MumiaAbuJamal’s Death Row Cell! Fragments From Brown U. Conference On Incarceration Archive And Abu-Jamal Exhibit
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” (Music And Lyrics By Mumia Abu-Jamal, Part Of The Abu-Jamal Papers @ Brown University Incarceration Archives)
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;
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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!
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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:
re: New “Doctor Who” Trailer: There Are No Words…..!!!!!! :)
In His Last Episode of NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Moderator Chuck Todd Passes His Alarm Clock To New Moderator Kristen Welker
Wait, 10 is 14 Again?!? Yeah, that’s “Doctor Who” Math For You :)
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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🙂
My Novel’s First Draft: Labors End, Labors Begin
So that’s what writing a rough draft of a novel is like!
Mine was easy since my novel is 80 percent true!
So I learned that all the fiction-writing stereotypes are true.
- You do get ideas when you’re trying to go to sleep.
- The characters do talk to you in your head until you write down what they are saying and/or doing.
- It does take as much time as you give it.
- It is true that the reader doesn’t have to know the whole history and background of your characters, but you do.
- You do miss your characters when you are done and it is a good idea to jump right into another project–as in “meeting someone new.” 🙂
- It does take a certain stamina and commitment to finish–particularly when you realize it’s just a first draft. (I haven’t run it through the AI yet.)
Wheee!!!! The Rising Tide of Trump TV
And we’ll have fun, fun, fun….. 🙂 It’s clear that MSNBC has practiced on Donald Trump for years like Olympics training. 🙂 The fact that it finally has something simple to explain–counting votes, Mob-like behavior, holding secret documents, white men trying to be above the law–really helps. I never understood one word of its RussiaGate coverage.
Joy Reid, Nicolle Wallace and Rachel Maddow are Ivy(ish)-educated talented writers and broadcasters who were born perhaps for this exact moment. (Conversely, do you think that our Ivy-educated young sis, Abby Phillip, is ready to sound like them? Does she have the emotional strength/anger level to go for the jugular? Will CNN let her do so?) They get to finish a narrative they’ve been carrying on every afternoon/night for years. Reid has been really serious these last 10 days or so, and I like her that way instead of her many failures at trying to provide Jon Stewart/Trevor Noah-type entertainment. Maddow clearly wants to be a contemporary historian. And the Morning Joe team enjoys writing Trump’s obit every day.
I’d feel much better about this if MSNBC would re-hire the former in-house rebel Tiffany Cross. She did nothing wrong but be herself and tell her truth, 1969-style. But I guess one Al Sharpton is enough for the network, and even he won’t talk that way anymore….
PO1135809: Racketeering, “A Criminal Conspiracy,” (American) Enterprise (cont’d)
Racketeering, “A Criminal Conspiracy,” (American) Enterprise (cont’d)
Drums in the Global Village 