The Story Of One Black Family, In NYC Protesting Ferguson/Eric Garner Decisions

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Danois

Who are these young activists, engaged in struggle? They are family members of my friend, the author Ericka Blount Danois.  From left: Sunny Moorhead, 11 (niece, in red); Ziggy Moorhead, 6 (nephew, with hat); daughters Lalia Danois, 12, and Maia Danois, 14, and sister Elissa Blount Moorhead.

Elissa Blount Moorhead’s emailed comments about the event and the pictures taken of them:

Beautiful images! Yes, that is Ziggy and his two cousins.  There were ones with him and Sunny and cousins on CNN and in a few papers.  It was a moving and incredibly organized and thoughtful event. I was nervous about taking them. There were rough moments with police and a lot of 6-year-old-level explanations (that, of course, I barely managed). At one point, Ziggy asked, “Aren’t the police supposed to help us?”  Punch in the gut for Mom. He asked today, “Are we gonna do our marches tonight?!?”  I said, “No, I think you guys made your voices heard and the grownups are working to fix it for you.”  He said, “Whew! Because I need to make some Pokémon cards!”  Innocence restored.  🙂

My Favorite Documentary, “James Baldwin: The Price Of The Ticket,” Celebrates Its 25th Anniversary

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I never thought the intellectual and professional content of my life could be symbolically defined by the content of one feature film documentary, but the one celebrated above (and promoted directly below) comes dangerously close. It is the documentary that made me me.

(I’m glad that the moderator and guest remembered Black documentary legend William Miles, now an Ancestor, who was a co-producer of this masterwork.)

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FEBRUARY 7th UPDATE: Happy to discover this. I love it when Baraka said that Baldwin “threatened Western Civilization with divinity,” and when he quoted from “The Evidence of Things Not Seen.” I was also happy to see that the effort Herb mentioned to get a New York City street named after James Baldwin was ultimately successful.