FISA + Obama • Jackson + Obama • that New Yorker cover • Al Gore steps it up

Not much time for blogging these days. Embarrassing since Ernest Hardy, whose laptop just died-

(a moment of silence for the importance of the loss of that appendage-like tool for any freelance writer).

-has still managed to keep posting. But he's a professional writer, while I am something of a different animal.

In the meantime, the world keeps turning and events and moments keep occurring that I want to jot down to consider later; with url links etc. So this little stream-of-consciousness ditty will be a placeholder for those future considerations. Bear with me.


Obama & FISA ("I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden...")
Last week, before I could even wrap my head around it, the FISA bill passed, AND Barack Obama voted for it. Yikes. I was, well, not exactly comforted, but rendered somewhat less despairingly flummoxed by an article cited by Eileen, a J'sTheater reader. On July 10th, the New York Times published Op-Ed columnist Gail Collins' "The Audacity of Listening," wherein Collins remind us that Obama never promised us a rose garden of radical change and accountability, instead what he offered was the building of a "new consensus" which actually means a new form of political compromise. It's just that the new form of compromising ("you've got to give a little...") looks a lot like the old form we've been (allowed ourselves to be?) subjected to. Another point Collins makes:

"...if you look at the political fights he’s [Obama] picked throughout his political career, the main theme is not any ideology. It’s that he hates stupidity. “I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war,” he said in 2002 in his big speech against the invasion of Iraq. He did not, you will notice, say he was against unilateral military action or pre-emptive attacks or nation-building. He was antidumb."

Jesse Jackson... (he what?!...where?!)
Then while I was busy woodshedding away, the Rev. Jesse Jackson decided to go on Fox News. As I said to my friend Dr. P when we conversed about this over the phone, 'What?! He went on Fox News! People, Fox News is not a friend to black people. Didn't the Rev. Wright conflama teach people anything?' Black + FoxNews = Unfair/Underhanded Coverage. Don't try to be the exception to the rule. Fortunately, Jackson wisely declined Bill O'Reilly's "invitation" to appear on his show to explain his comments.

Really, have we learned nothing from the Clinton campaign and Brian Springer's documentary Spin (1995)? Springer recorded satellite feeds of news outlets for a full year and then edited into a documentary which showed what people said when the cameras weren't broadcasting signal to the networks, but the feed was still rolling for satellite capture. In all fairness, this film never got the major release it deserved. If it had, its current standing would be on par with the best of Michael Moore's work and Errol Morris' The Fog of War (2003). Among its various illuminating lessons on media communications, Spin demonstrated how Clinton learned early on that the camera never stopped rolling. He was always campaigning, even while getting a make-up retouch during commercial or station breaks.

Also, fortunately, former Time columnist Jack White penned a response to the Jesse Jackson response to the (in some quarters) controversial Obama Father's Day speech which I still haven't heard. On July 10th, The Root published White's "When the Man Is One of Us" along with Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill's "Defending Jesse Jackson... Kinda" on July 17th. White's piece makes the following point about the Obama candidacy and the upending of certain expectations around marginalization and race that some African Americans may not have even know we have:

"We haven't really been in a place this confusing since 1954, when the NAACP's crusade against segregation culminated in the Brown vs. Board decision and the walls came tumbling down. It's fair to say that we were so focused on winning that fight that we weren't prepared for the victory or its aftermath. We've spent nearly 60 years since then trying to figure out what kind of relationship we want to have with America and with each other. For the most part, we, like Jackson Sr., have seen ourselves as outsiders battling for justice and a seat at the table. Our default has been to protest. And while that mindset has served us well, it has, in a flash, been made damn near obsolete by the prospect, even the likelihood, that one of us may soon become the most powerful man in the world. If that happens, how can we seriously argue that we're being held back by anything but the limits we place on ourselves? "That, it seems to me, accounts in part for the frustration some of us are feeling by what we interpret as Obama's move to the center [the FISA vote, etc.]. We are simply not accustomed to one of our own playing real, power politics..."

I'm not sure I agree with this last point. I think many of us have seen power politics being played by African American politicians--just not inhabiting the position of a presumed presidential candidate. White goes on to discuss the Obama Father's Day speech and what he considers a growing "new consensus that places more emphasis on a public discussion of personal responsibility than on protest, on publicly delving into our own shortcomings and dysfunctional behavior." A consensus among who I'm not sure: Obama and Bill Cosby?


The New Yorker... (rueful head shake)
But still I say we're fortunate to have the Jack White comments to brace us, because right around the corner comes The New Yorker July 21st issue cover. This proves that White could have included not just African Americans in his article's tagline statement: "[Jackson's] latest gaffe shows how none of us is really ready for this moment."

In between moments of looking at various emails landing in my inbox featuring the cover, outraged comments about the cover, a link to the full size JPEG of the cover... I sat aghast, literally speechless, thinking where's Mark Twain when you need him? Or at least hadn't the New Yorker realized that some/many people 100 years later still don't get Twain's racial satire--but they really expected people browsing a news kiosk for 5 minutes to get this New Yorker cover? Plus if they really wanted to satirize the media misinformation why don't the actual sources of said misinformation of the Obama's appear central in the satire? However, I had the presence of mind to visit writer Tayari Jones' blog which always offers grace, joy, incisiveness, and the real served up in equal portions. This day was no different as Jones had linked to comments by writer Victor LaValle (whose writing I love), published by his friend fellow writer Maud Newton on her blog. LaValle (bless him), under the title "The New Yorker cracks up," lays it out, and goes where Jack White didn't. White liberals have lost it. While people have worried about whether or not the white folks in middle America would vote for Obama, they should have been worried about their left-leaning friends. As Lavalle does the negotiated read (thanks Stuart Hall) on the cover, the following points are made:

"The magazine has defended itself, saying this picture is meant as satire, but I’m not quite sure who the joke is on. Is the joke on Michelle and Barack? No. They say the joke is about the fears and anxieties that exist about Barack and Michelle in the White House. But normally this kind of picture might also include the true subject of the satire, maybe a sleeping figure in the lower right hand corner who represents these fearful masses. Maybe George Bush or Rush Limbaugh. Or, unfortunately, even Jesse Jackson. The image of the Obamas would be inside those fluffy lines that indicate a dream. "But if nothing like that is in the picture whose nightmare could this be?"

Whose indeed?

The most pointed insights LaValle reserves for the Older White Liberals aka OWLs, and their conflicting instincts towards "rational liberalism and irrational fear" who at dinner parties that some of his white friends have been at (and where no blacks were present) question Obama as presidential material. But not on position on specific issues, or his voting record, or his experience, but with the intangible assessment, “I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about him that I can’t get behind.” LaValle characterizes these OWLs as "over 50, generally well-off and liberal to a fault." Basically The New Yorker's core readership, who as it turns out might yet... vote for McCain???

These are strange days indeed.


Al Gore's 10 year Plan
On the upside, Al Gore is concerned about the survival of the nation, environmental stability, and global accountability and he's pledging to do even more about it. He's joined We Can Solve It, and his video address is shooting around the internet, along with a petition demanding "America must commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and other clean sources within 10 years."

Yes, I signed it. A big selling point for me was Gore's insistence that coal miners should not be displaced by this policy change, and should be first in line for the new jobs created by a new solar energy focus. Also, his memorable tagline "we should be taxed on what we burn, not what we earn" regarding a reduction in income tax that would be shifted to a fossil fuel tax equivalent to the cost of environmental damage caused by fossil fuels. Right On.

If you want to find out more about this effort and see/hear Gore's speech check this We Can Solve It webpage.


Endnote:
• FoxNews video of the Jackson comments during the broadcast break (brought to you by the Coal Industry: Go Global Warming!) on Fox's Talking POINTS. Bill O'Reilly's subsequent Talking Points editorialize about how "unlike what Jackson himself often does" FoxNews won't be speculating as to the motivation behind Jackson's comments, "or describe his comments in any pejorative way," while both he and the scrolling intertitles next to him (with headers like "OBAMA BASHING" speculate as to Jackson's motivations (e.g. "now some believe that there's a rivalry between the two men, but we've seen no evidence of that other than [pregnant pause] , what you've just heard." ) And all of this gets framed as Rev. Jackson "having some negative comments about Senator Obama's recent support of faith-based based charities operating with government funds." Which is certainly off-point from Jackson's comments but this fudging allows FoxNews to paint Jackson as against a popular, but nonetheless-charged Bush/Reagan policy (Uh hello, separation of church and state), and take a solid dig at his standing as "a man of faith."
• Barack Obama's Father's Day Speech text, courtesy of The Huffington Post.
• Al Gore speech video from CNN.

Another Cripus Attucks Day + An Embarrassment of Riches: Hardy & Farris

Ah, yes it's that time of year again: Crispus Attucks Day!

What?

Haven't heard of it?! Say it ain't so!

OK, well don't lie.

Here, go to this post from last July that'll explain the whole thing. Plus it'll (briefly) contextualize some of the key notions concerning freedom, race, nationhood, etc. in the formation of US independence and national identity. (photo: Crispus Attucks monument in Boston)

You'll note I'm not talking about "celebrating" Crispus Attucks, un-hunh, history is a complicated animal. Just read the post.

And the embarrassment of riches? Part I & II...

Part I
That's about the fact that even though he's recently taken on a ton of work to keep food on the table and gas in the tank, writer/film & music critic Ernest Hardy has been blogging up a storm lately. Hardy's been taking us down memory lane with reminisces, images, and video from his Detroit high school days as a burgeoning critical thinker on the complexities of the everyday black music scene; an interview with pioneering lesbian filmmaker Donna Deitch; and an excerpt from an essay on filmmaker/photographer David LaChappelle's documentary on the Los Angeles krump dance phenomenon, RIZE (2005) from his second essay collection Blood Beats Vol.2. Oh, and do check out the "ton of work" link above to read about the wisdom afforded by Hardy's meeting the "Weed Woman"--it is and isn't what it reads like in that suggestion. But if you're an artist who's ever dealt with the digestive tract flaming that can be "the rejection letter," you'll appreciate the post.

Part II
The (Return of) Dionne Farris. Remember Dionne Farris? I l-o-o-v-ed Dionne Farris, back in the day. She knocked me out with her pretty-pretty country-girl rocker in the big city aesthetic ("I Know") and her mix of jazz fusion-like squeaky clean production juxtaposed with country-fried rock wall of guitar sound ("Passion"). Plus she could pull back the layers and bring on a timeless soul classic like "Hopeless" (co-written with Van Hunt), from the Love Jones (1997) soundtrack (as good as Ashford & Simpson in their prime). That album, Wild Seed - Wild Flower was definitely a breakthrough, and most people imagined she would easily get a sophomore effort album out within the next year or two and go on from there. But that didn't happen.

Farris released a new CD in March 2008, Signs of Life (check this link to listen to sample tracks), she's got a blog (Dionne Farris' Weblog), and she's self-distributing the CD as a digital download using PayPal--the link system seems to still have a few kinks, but keep trying and you'll eventually end up at her Dionne Farris dba Free & Clear Records PayPal site. You can also check out sample videos from her Remember My Name Video Album produced by her Free & Clear Records and the ATL's FunkJazz Kafé. This work is considerably more mellow than the more rock-kissed works on her debut. Her voice is still in good form, and she's still writing about subjects that matter. R&B, hip hop soul for grown ups.

I don't know the last time Farris performed in the NY-area but she's coming this way next week. She's playing the Blue Curtain 2008 Concert Series at the Pettoranello Gardens in New Jersey on Saturday, July 12th. Blue Curtain's concerts are free community events, Farris is headlining a bill with Kulu Mele African American Dance Ensemble. Then she'll be at The Cutting Room in NYC on Monday, July 23rd. Lastly, Farris is coming to Joe's Pub on Tuesday, August 1st for the first time. I hope people get in the know and get out to support one or more of these shows.

Writer Marlon James says just what I was thinking, and more, in this post from back on 13 February 2008, titled, "Whatever Happened to Dionne Farris?" Here's a little sample:

"Maybe it was only a feeding frenzy after all. It wouldn’t have been the first time. Anytime an artist sidesteps formula and hits upon a winner along comes the deluge, the signing shitstorm that starts off promising but ends up with diminished returns, Shabba Ranks leading to Snow, Pearl Jam leading to effluvia like Creed. But this movement was something else. I didn’t believe it myself. Back in the mid nineties you couldn’t throw a stone without hitting a brilliant black female musician. "The sheer number was staggering: Ambersunshower, Carleen Anderson, Jhelisa, Davina, Amil Larrieux [sic], Sha-Key, 99, Meshell NdegeOcello, DK Dyson, Nicole Renee, Cherokee, Julie Dexter, Erykah Badu, Ndambi, Angel, Joi, Joi Cardwell, Janice Robinson, Skin, Res, Sandra St.Victor, N’Dea Davenport, Jazzyfatnastees, Kira, Des’Ree, D-Influence and Caron Wheeler. Neneh Cherry had just released Homebrew, a stunning new direction for hip-hop that showed you could be a blues-heavy world-wise funky mother of two and still wear no panties if you wish. This was the glory days of Vibe magazine under Jonathan Van Meter, where every week they seemed to dig up brand new funky thing. Like the so-called black wave of film directors (remember that NY times cover?) this wave of unclassifiable black women talked like a revolution, artists who were neither divas nor garden tools and who weren’t afraid of taking their minds to the dance floor. Dionne Farris in particular was championed by the magazine. Late of critical darlings Arrested Development and ready to take on the planet, she had even a better album than her former group...."

Read the rest at Marlon James, Among Other Things, and you might get some insight into the naming of Farris' Free & Clear company. For a short answer to James' title question check out the Creative Loafing profile listed below.

Video Wind-Back
Showing a little love to Ms. Farris and all the beautiful and brilliant gap-toothed, shorn and close-crop pated sisters and brothers out there (and a little shout out to the brother with whom I recently shared a black hair love moment; 'cause you gotta show the love!)

Farris' standout first single, "I Know" from her 1994 debut Wild Seed, Wild Flower. Looking every bit the everyday iconic black rock star and showing her way with harmonies as she has that great "ti-i-ime" run 2/3rds of the way in followed by that great crunching slide guitar.




Another release "Passion," from the same album. Note the textural juxtapositions of smooth and rough in the guitar arrangements from verse to chorus, also the bass color, and the way it's mixed forward and provides a steady counterpoint to Farris' vocals. I think her vocals were mixed a little too forward on this cut, but I still like it. And Farris once again working that country-city aesthetic, and proving bald is beautiful.



Finally, "Hopeless" from the Love Jones soundtrack(1997) with Farris daring, without irony, to wear a pair of glasses and a thick cable-knit sweater in a music video that shows black-boho-geek-beauty in much diversity (with a babyfaced Van Hunt on guitar, and Randy Jackson on bass--pre-"American Idol." The man did have a serious past as a producer before becoming part of the pop culture reality-TV machine.)



Endnote:
• 18 June 2008 Creative Loafing profile of Farris.
• Baggage, the first short film from Farris' Remember My Name Vol. 1 video album. The song was co-written with her former writing partner Van Hunt. Farris hanging in the San Francisco Bay Area, and performing at Yoshi's in Oakland.
• Fair, the second short film from the Remember My Name, Vol. 1 video album. Farris performing live (with an unfortunately off-key backup vocalist).
• For U, the third short film from the Remember My Name, Vol. 1 video album. Farris as a grown up musician with children, a house, and everyday concerns like laundry and paying the bills.

Cauleen Smith @ The Kitchen, July 1st, 8pm

Cauleen Smith is one of my favorite filmmakers/visual artists. Seriously, if I had to be stuck on a film set for the rest of my life, I would want to be on her set--I'd always be seeing, hearing, and learning something new. If someone told me she'd made a film about paint drying, I'd be first in line to get a seat. She would undoubtedly communicate something surreal, playful, and surprising in her realization of this commonly tedious reality (pictured right, still from I Want to See My Skirt)

But I don't have to wait for a Twilight Zone/Groundhog Day episode to take over my life, or for someone to commission a film about a blank wall in need of a touch up. Nope. Cauleen Smith is on her way to NYC to premier her latest film, The Fullness of Time, at The Kitchen to be followed by a conversation between herself and the film's executive producer Paul Chan (Waiting for Godot in New Orleans). The screening is part of The Kitchen's The Future As Disruption exhibition of film, sculpture, painting, and photography curated by Rashida Bumbray and Matthew Lyons.

The premise of the film continues Carbonist School co-founder Smith's interest in black futurist postulations and science fictions, with a "sister-from-another-planet" traveling to Earth to study its ways and landing in post-Katrina New Orleans. The film was shot on location in New Orleans and Smith collaborated with New Orleans writer/educator Kalamu ya Salaam and Students At the Center. I'm not going to restate the description from the flyer, so for more information click the image below or check out the The Kitchen's webpage.
Also, check out a clip from the film at the end of this post.


Also, for those hardcore Afrofuturists out there Otolith Group (Anjalika Sagar, Kodwo Eshun, and Richard Couzins) is screening at 7pm.

The Fullness of Time dir. Cauleen Smith
The Future As Disruption
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street @ 10th Avenue
New York, NY 10011
212-255-5793
Google map
8pm
FREE

Subway & PATH:
• C, E to West 23rd@ 8th Ave, walk over and up to 19th & 10th Ave
• 1 to West 23rd@ 7th Ave or West 18th@ 7th Ave, walk over and up to 19th & 10th Ave
• F,V to West 23rd @ 6th Ave (Ave of the Americas) walk over and up to 19th & 10th Ave
• PATH to West 23rd @ 6th Ave, then same as F, V above

Endnote:
• More on Cauleen Smith from Tribeca Film Institute
• The Cauleen Smith and poet A. Van Jordan (Cave Canem, again!) collaboration, I Want to See My Skirt, inspired by the images of Malian photographer Malik Sidibé, details from Code Z, and a review of the exhibit from Glasstire: Texas visual art online.
• Review of Smith's NTSC in the Austin Chronicle (Smith was previously on faculty in film production at UT/Austin)
• Afrogalactic Postcards, a collaborative online project funded by NBPC (National Black Programming Consortium) on which Smith was one of the producers.
(pictured l-r, the Afrogalactic postcard producers: Smith, Sergio Mata'u Rapu, Naimah Fuller, Dr. Steeve Coupeau (yes with two "e's"))



Clip from the The Fullness of Time



Cauleen Smith's The Green Dress: Chapter I (pictured above the NBPC photo, a still image from this video installation--originally shot on 35mm film)

Pippa Fleming on butch, griot identity, and "living in the mainstream"

KPFA interview with writer/director/choreographer/DJ (etc., etc,) Pippa Fleming, and producer and Endangered Species Project activist Grace Dueñas [sic?] , and cellist Naboko Mizaguchi [sic?], on Fleming's performance project "The Ms. K.I.A Chronicles" a "multimedia exploration of African American butch, griot identity in America" taken from her longer work Living In the Mainstream.

Fleming looks at various aspects of identity taking into account the inter-generational questions of identity in relationship to gender, race, national identity, culture and memory.

A little sample of Fleming's stage presence with her performance of "Bitter Pill," from "The Ms. K.I.A. Chronicles" production at the Museum of the African Diaspora in 2007.

Slavery by Another Name by Douglas A. Blackmon

The full title of the book resulting from the Atlanta-based Wall Street Journal reporter Douglas A. Blackmon's seven years of research is Slavery by Another Name: The Reinslavement of African Americans from the Civil War to World War II (Doubleday, 2008). No that's not a typo, yes as you can see by the image to the right, that is actually the title of the book and the end of


I've just reserved a copy at my public library. In the book Blackmon uses the narrative technique of following one African American man in Alabama describing how after the dismantling of Reconstruction laws were put on the books that "criminalized African American life" including those allowing for the arrest for vagrancy at any time of any African American man who couldn't provide proof of his employ by a white man. So just sitting on a porch, or taking a walk, or walking, or traveling by any means to visit family, or to a place where he might inquire after employment was was dangerous proposition for a black man and his loved ones at that time. After being charged and convicted with vagrancy or another trumped up charge he was given a financial penalty which could amount to a years worth of wages or more and forced to work to pay them off by being leased or sold to a commercial enterprise. The conditions were appalling as detailed by Blackmon, and many men died in enslavement.

Although Blackmon focuses on Alabama in a May 6 interview (you'll need to scroll forward a little to get to the interview) with Michael Slate of KPFK's Beneath the Surface, he noted that this type of re-enslavement practice was occurring across the South. It occurred for the longest period of time and in its most structured form in Alabama. There are 30,000 pages of documentation on the situation comprising numerous complaints all available in the National Archives in Washington D.C. Blackmon talked about the changing national sentiment towards the Civil War and race relations in the wake of emancipation, the legal loopholes that allowed for this practice while it was unconstitutional for a white person to hold a deeds on African Americans as property, there was no federal statute that made it a crime enslave another person. So even though these complaints poured into federal offices it was determined by the government that they didn't have the jurisdiction to investigate or prosecute these cases. What amounted to kidnapping was not considered a federal offense and thus allowed the practice to be exclusively under state and county jurisdiction. Blackmon also commented on the white South's addiction to the economic model of slave labor as well as landowners lack of developed knowledge about their agrarian methods. Further xplaining the background to this reinslavement model he outlined the pre-Civil War development of a new slavery model in which African American men were separated from their families and put to work in industry fields at inhuman paces, "far beyond what any human being could be expected to survive" that resulted in profits that exceeded the loss incurred by that man being effectively worked to death in 4-5 years, and losing out on procreation opportunities--despite the purchase cost of slaves at that time. Some of these same white men were the architects of the new re-enslavement system after the Civil War. The resulting wealth, with the elimination or considerable decrease of the initial purchase cost of a slave, is behind the development of such companies as US Steel and Coca-Cola. (pictured above a U.S. Steel stockade (jail) in Birmingham, Alabama, 1908 © Douglas A. Blackmon) This re-enslavement primarily focused on young African American males, but of course also profoundly impacted African American families and communities, children grandparents, sisters, wives, who experienced the loss of loved ones and the continued violence and terrorism against their basic humanity in the repeated rending through of African American families and communities with this continuation of slavery--how can one recover from a disease that has not ended, but mutated and "metastasized"?

Blackmon's book also has a website with excerpts from the book, interviews, photo gallery, teaching guides, and multimedia resources. The practice the book details only ended in 1942. It was, as Slate and Blackmon deemed, a cynically motivated ending to a horrible injustice and shameful period. With the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 and the US's entry into WWII, the Roosevelt administration realized that the existence of both the lynching of African Americans as well as this continuation of basically legal slavery in the South were going to be propaganda nightmares for the country. The legal changes with regards to prosecution for this form of enslavement soon went into effect on December 11, 1941 (lynching laws took much longer to take effect), and the first case was prosecuted in early 1942, a father and daughter who had enslaved a black man for five years. In 1943 they were convicted and sent to prison--an event which Blackmon considers the official endpoint for what he terms "the Age of New Slavery."

Officially the enslavement of African Americans--in all currently known forms--has only been over for 65 years, instead of the heretofore accepted end-date of 1865, or 143 years ago. Many of us have relatives older than 65 years of age.

I'm thinking it's time to add another emancipation day of recognition to Juneteenth. Additionally I want to express my graditute all those people who are responsible for those thousands of complaints that flooded the White House and the Justice Department in Washington D.C. taking what I'm sure was considerable personal risk to issue those statements. Though many of them likely died without redress, the fact that they attempted to be heard and gain justice meant that decades later someone, in this case Blackmon, could find that history and know it wasn't a few isolated cases, that a major chapter of US history was missing and needed to be addressed.

Black Male Response to R. Kelly Verdict

One of the most constructive response to the potential despair and demoralization rendered by this event and the subsequent jubilant celebrations on the part of some African Americans is this statement and petition from Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women. This response is being forwarded by author Jelani Cobb and others

• • • •

Dear Friends:

I am one of the contributors to the anthology Be A Father to Your Child, which focuses on encouraging healthy fatherhood development in the black community. We felt it necessary to issue the following statement and petition in response to the recent verdict in R. Kelly's child pornography trial.

Please read and, if you agree, sign and forward this to your networks.

Sincerely,

Jelani Cobb

Statement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women



Six years have gone by since we first heard the allegations that R. Kelly had filmed himself having sex with an underage girl. During that time we have seen the videotape being hawked on street corners in Black communities, as if the dehumanization of one of our own was not at stake. We have seen entertainers rally around him and watched his career reach new heights despite the grave possibility that he had molested and urinated on a 13-year old girl. We saw African Americans purchase millions of his records despite the long history of such charges swirling around the singer. Worst of all, we have witnessed the sad vision of Black people cheering his acquittal with a fervor usually reserved for community heroes and shaken our heads at the stunning lack of outrage over the verdict in the broader Black community.

Over these years, justice has been delayed and it has been denied. Perhaps a jury can accept R. Kelly's absurd defense and find "reasonable doubt" despite the fact that the film was shot in his home and featured a man who was identical to him. Perhaps they doubted that the young woman in the courtroom was, in fact, the same person featured in the ten year old video. But there is no doubt about this: some young Black woman was filmed being degraded and exploited by a much older Black man, some daughter of our community was left unprotected, and somewhere another Black woman is being molested, abused or raped and our callous handling of this case will make it that much more difficult for her to come forward and be believed. And each of us is responsible for it.

We have proudly seen the community take to the streets in defense of Black men who have been the victims of police violence or racist attacks, but that righteous outrage only highlights the silence surrounding this verdict.

We believe that our judgment has been clouded by celebrity-worship; we believe that we are a community in crisis and that our addiction to sexism has reached such an extreme that many of us cannot even recognize child molestation when we see it.

We recognize the absolute necessity for Black men to speak in a single, unified voice and state something that should be absolutely obvious: that the women of our community are full human beings, that we cannot and will not tolerate the poisonous hatred of women that has already damaged our families, relationships and culture.

We believe that our daughters are precious and they deserve our protection. We believe that Black men must take responsibility for our contributions to this terrible state of affairs and make an effort to change our lives and our communities.

This is about more than R. Kelly's claims to innocence. It is about our survival as a community. Until we believe that our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and friends are worthy of justice, until we believe that rape, domestic violence and the casual sexism that permeates our culture are absolutely unacceptable, until we recognize that the first priority of any community is the protection of its young, we will remain in this tragic dead-end.

We ask that you:

o Sign your name if you are a Black male who supports this statement:

http://www.petitiononline.com/rkelly/petition.html

o Forward this statement to your entire network and ask other Black males to sign as well

o Make a personal pledge to never support R. Kelly again in any form or fashion, unless he publicly apologizes for his behavior and gets help for his long-standing sexual conduct, in his private life and in his music

o Make a commitment in your own life to never to hit, beat, molest, rape, or exploit Black females in any way and, if you have, to take ownership for your behavior, seek emotional and spiritual help, and, over time, become a voice against all forms of Black female exploitation

o Challenge other Black males, no matter their age, class or educational background, or status in life, if they engage in behavior and language that is exploitative and or disrespectful to Black females in any way. If you say nothing, you become just as guilty.

o Learn to listen to the voices, concerns, needs, criticisms, and challenges of Black females, because they are our equals, and because in listening we will learn a new and different kind of Black manhood




We support the work of scholars, activists and organizations that are helping to redefine Black manhood in healthy ways. Additional resources are listed below.

Books:
Who's Gonna Take the Weight, Kevin Powell
New Black Man, Mark Anthony Neal
Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot, Pearl Cleage
Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality, Rudolph Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall

Films:
I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America, by Byron Hurt
Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, by Byron Hurt
NO! The Rape Documentary, by Aishah Simmons

Organizations
The 2025 Campaign: www.2025bmb.org
Men Stopping Violence: www.menstoppingviolence.org

Sound Designer Ben Burtt on Pixar's WALL•E

Ah yes, more sound design--'tis the season, summer time with it's plethora of animated and action films. Some films are offering both genres as with director Andrew Stanton's (dir/wr. Finding Nemo; wr. Toy Story, Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life) forthcoming Pixar release, WALL•E. When Stanton was creating his alternate world he imagined only one sound designer with the chops to deliver a whole auditory universe, legendary Academy Award-winning sound and character voice designer Ben Burtt (Star Wars-every single one, Indiana Jones, etc) creator of the voice of R2-D2 among other cultural signifiers.

Check out this video profiling Burtt and the sound design process for WALL•E. Burtt looks like he has one of the best and most fun jobs in the world, right? He constantly gets to be curious, explore, take risks, and some of his failures have probably been huge successes, or least starting points for some interesting discoveries. There's something to be learned from that, for sure.

Endnote:
• Transcript of interview excerpt with Ben Burtt from the Star Wars Trilogy: The Definitive Collection Laserdisc Box Set.
• (Added 6/30/08) Interview with Ben Burtt on NPR from Studio 360.
• (Added 7/1/08) More interviews with Burtt and other goodies at Film Sound Daily and a profile of Burtt in the LA Times.


Ben Burtt on creating the Lightsaber sound design for Star Wars. So inspiring, amazing possibilities for sound are everywhere!

Young, Gifted & Black Panel - Congressional Black Caucus 2007

Video of a panel at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's ALC 2007, hosted by Congresswoman Maxine Waters that included Russell Simmons, Michael Baisden, Hill Harper, Congressman Laura Richardson and artist/poet Taalam Acey. I haven't viewed the entirety of it as of yet. Just wanted to be able to track it down when I have the time. Preliminarily, I noted the self-empowerment and entrepreneurial-capital focus the beginning section, then an audience member brings up the issue of making connections to history (particularly Garvey) and current concerns and efforts.

Sounds & Emotions

From Brussels: sounds and emotions

"experimental music for experimental people", onder die vlag selecteert nico bogaerts wekelijks zijn favoriete audiopareltjes.

Kung Fu Panda Sound Design Team

A behind the scenes look at the sound design for the new animated movie Kung Fu Panda.