I want to post links to three discussions I caught on C-SPAN during the Thanksgiving break. The goal of this blog to help broaden horizions and empower people, especially high school and college students.  In addition to exploring great works of literature from Africa and the African Diaspora we will examine issues of
education, empowerment, spirituality, global affairs, economics, civic empowerment, community revitalization and public policy.

Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State, recalls her childhood in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960's and profiles her parents, John and Angelena. Ms. Rice discusses her memoir with her cousin Constance Rice, co-director of the Advancement Project at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Extraord

A group of emerging young professionals, including some from the Obama administration, talked about building successful careers in politics. This program was part of the 40th Annual Legislative Conference of the Congressional Black Caucus.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/EmergingPo

Angela Davis presents a critical edition of Frederick Douglass' memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - An American Slave Written By Himself. Ms. Davis explores the abolitionists intellectual life and recalls the several other editions of Douglass' memoir. Angela Davis is joined in conversation with Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Toni Morrison at the New York Public Library in New York City.

http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/LifeofF

New York Times article on Chinua Achebe link

Books of The Times

Chinua Achebe’s Encounters With Many Hearts of Darkness

By DWIGHT GARNER

Published: December 15, 2009

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/books/16book.html

THINGS FALL APART: Why Chinua Achebe is still the Father of African Literature

THINGS FALL APART: Why Chinua Achebe is still the Father of African Literature

Chinua Achebe

  

Chinua Achebe was born in Nigeria in 1930. He was raised in the large village of Ogidi, one of the first centers of Anglican missionary work in Eastern Nigeria, and is a graduate of University College, Ibadan. His early career in radio ended abruptly in 1966, when he left his post as Director of External Broadcasting in Nigeria during the national upheaval that led to the Biafran War. He was appointed Senior Research Fellow at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, and began lecturing widely abroad. From 1972 to 1976, and again in 1987 to 1988, Mr. Achebe was a Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and also for one year at the University of Connecticut, Storrs. Cited in the London Sunday Times as one of the 1,000 "Makers of the Twentieth Century," for defining "a modern African literature that was truly African" and thereby making "a major contribution to world literature," Mr. Achebe has published novels, short stories, essays, and children's books. His volume of poetry, Christmas in Biafra, written during the Biafran War, was the joint winner of the first Commonwealth Poetry Prize. His novel Arrow of God was winner of the New Statesman-Jock Campbell Award, and Anthills of the Savannah was a finalist for the 1987 Booker Prize in England. Often mentioned as a leading candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mr. Achebe holds an Honorary Fellowship of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, as well as more than twenty honorary doctorates from universities in England, Scotland, the U.S., Canada, and Nigeria. He is also the recipient of Nigeria's highest award for intellectual achievement, the Nigerian National Merit Award.

Chinua Achebe Videos

http://www.vimeo.com/11032220

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjtXPw7c5Jc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ON7-G0XqJrc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGEzn0ZECvY

Nigeria

Things Fall Apart takes place in the West Africa country of Nigeria.
Nigeria officially named the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a federal constitutional republic comprising thirty-six states and one Federal Capital Territory. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the south.

FAST FACTS ABOUT NIGERIA

• Population: 158.2 million (UN, 2010)
• Capital: Abuja
• Largest city: Lagos
• Area: 923,768 sq km (356,669 sq miles)
• Major languages: English (official), Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa
• Major religions: Islam, Christianity, indigenous beliefs
• Life expectancy: 49 years (men), 50 years (women) (UN)
• Monetary unit: 1 Nigerian naira = 100 kobo
• Main exports: Petroleum, petroleum products, cocoa, rubber

Africa is A Continent

This may seem like a simplistic way to begin out discussion of Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, but often times we forget that Africa is not one huge country but over 50 separate countries located on the second largest continent.

New Book: Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

      Last week Mrs. Trina V. Toles and I were having a lively discussion with the African graduate students who work at the Margaret Walker Alexander National Research Center and Mrs. Toles suggested we needed more discussion and exploration of international issues, especially in regards to the continent of Africa.  At the Center the following African countries are currently represented: Ghana, Nigeria, and Tunisia.  In the past we have had students from Cameroon and Gambia as well. 

I recommended we read the classic African novel, Things Fall Apart by Nigerian author, Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart is a great jumping off point for our discussion of both African history and current events.  Please join us both online and an actual meeting TBA. 

Freedom Riders Videos

 Please check out these youtube videos on the Freedom Riders

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T50Ym94k8Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFWETmFjOg0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzaNPgHjWno 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-UE6n6JnM4

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdbQKjr9Bu4 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqhVv9--MSY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ISDcGAQmgw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mEk3PQWHsM

Check out website for Freedom Riders Celebration

http://www.mississippifreedom50th.com/blog/

Freedom Riders Of 1961 Honored - WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS:

Freedom Riders Of 1961 Honored - WLBT 3 - Jackson, MS:

Freedom Riders 50th Anniversary Celebration begins on Farish Street

On Thursday, November 11, the Farish Street Historic District was the site of the reception and movie screening honoring the Freedom Riders.  It was an awesome event highlighting progress, opportunity, challenges and diversity. 
Peaches Cafe hosted a reception attended by a standing room only, diverse crowd excited by the opportunity to screen excerpts of the new documentary film on the Freedom Riders.  The Alamo Theater was also filled with energized individuals who savored the opportunity to meet actual Freedom Riders. 
The events also highlighted another opportunity, the revitalization of Farish Street.  The much delayed revitalization project is finally gaining momentum at the Amite Street corner of Farish Street, but as I passed gutted out facades closer to Peaches Cafe and the Alamo Theater, I realized that there is still a lot more work to be done. 
Farish Street represents the best and worst of Jackson.  Once a thriving economic, religious, cultural corridor in the heart of downtown Jackson, it has fallen victim to urban decay and blight.  Farish Street runs north and south with its southern terminus being Pascagoula Street and its northern terminus Fortification Street. 
The Farish Street Historic District borders include North: Fortification Street, South: Amite Street, East: Lamar Street and West: Mill Street.  The Farish Street Entertainment District currently consist of Farish Street from Amite to Griffith Streets. 
When the Freedom Riders arrived in Jackson in 1961 Farish Street was the hub of the African American religious, economic, cultural, lives.  There were doctors' offices, funeral homes, churches, restaurants, night clubs, record companies, movie theaters, attorney offices, etc.  Richard Wright writes memorably about Farish Street and downtown Jackson in his books, Black Boy and Uncle Tom's Children.  I currently attend church at the historic Farish Street Baptist Church located there since 1893.  Stalwarts of Farish Street preservation and revitalization, Dr. Alferdteen Harrison, Col. James Talmadge Anderson, Ms. Nettie Stowers and others attend Farish Street Baptist Church.  Other churches and businesses such as New Hope Baptist Church-Hamilton Street, Mount Helm Baptist Church, Central United Methodist Church, Collins Funeral Home, Peoples Funeral Home and many others work to save Farish Street. 

Article on 2010 Mid-term Elections

 Click on link below to check out article on mid-term elections by Dr. Anthony Samad,  BlackCommentator.com
Analyzing The 2010 Mid-Term Elections: Not As "Gloom and Doom" As We Think - Between the Lines - By Dr. Anthony Asadullah Samad, PhD - BlackCommentator.com Columnist

Photos from Last Reading Community Meeting

Click on link below to see photos from JSU  Reading Community discussion of The Mis-Education of the Negro by Dr. Carter G. Woodson:
http://presidentreading.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/photos-from-book-discussion-the-mis-education-of-the-negro-by-carter-g-woodson/

Where Do We Go From Here?

Hope you’re enjoying reading “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Our next discussion will be held at 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 15, at the Java & News Cyber Cafe inside the H.T. Sampson Library.

This will be our last book discussion for 2010 and I hope we can generate lots of excitement for our January selection.

Remember, the President’s Campus Reading Community is open to the general public. To join, send an email with your name, class (if you’re a student) and email address topublicrelations@jsums.edu.

Womanhood is something that doesn't seem to have a real description

Megs said:

Womanhood is is something that doesn't seem to have a real description. Once you try to define it, you limit what it can be, and it should be a force. And all real forces of nature move without boundaries. Womanhood is like nature. It encompasses everything. It touches everyone, and it is a symbol of life.
I don't like to think that all African Americans have a certain attitude toward anything because we are all individuals and have our own minds. But I would like to see more people embrace sex as something that is akin to love and instead of a sin. When you demonize something beautiful, all the products of it are suspected to be dirty as well. People will live in the closet with their dirty secrets allowing it to torture them and become something painful and violent. Being more open with conversations involving sex and not trying to proselytize a certain dogma is very important in making people think about what it is they are doing and why they do it.

 Thank you Megs for your comments!
Megs you bring up some great points about African American attitudes toward womanhood and human sexuality.  Some of our attitudes are based on our history as African American women.  African American women activists of the nineteenth and  early 20th century fought against stereotypes that labeled African American women as liars, sluts, and whores. 
Read what Mrs. Mary Church Terrell  says about that time:

When Ernestine Rose, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucy Stone and Susan B. Anthony began that agitation by which colleges were opened to women and the numerous reforms inaugurated for the amelioration of their condition along all lines, their sisters who groaned in bondage had little reason to hope that these blessings would ever brighten their crushed and blighted lives, for during those days of oppression and despair, colored women were not only refused admittance to institutions of learning, but the law of the States in which the majority lived made it a crime to teach them to read.

During slavery and Jim Crow African American women's sexuality was defined as promiscuity.  And African American women leaders worked very hard to remove that stigma. While we should not limit what womanhood is Megs, I do think we need to define what womanhood isn't.  Womanhood is not limited to what is between a woman's legs and women have more to offer humanity than simply what is between their legs.  
Also many African American women identify themselves as Christian and Christianity defines sex as the function of marital procreation and marital intimacy.  Any sexual relations that is not related to either making babies during marriage or promoting intimacy in marriage is considered wrong.    Two of the ten commandments deal directly with sexuality: "Thou shalt not covet" and "Thou shalt not commit adultery", both the Old and New Testaments consider homosexuality  and premarital sex wrong. 
But the reality the 21st century church faces is while it condemns certain sexual behaviors, both Catholic and Protestant pastors and  leaders have been caught in horrific sex abuse scandals.  But it is not just the church leadership that has problems with double standards in terms of sexuality, we as loyal congregants endorse public policy that outlaws abortion, insist on abstinence only sex education, forbids gay marriage, limits entitlement programs, while coping in our personal lives with teenage pregnancy, increased exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, single-parent homes, extra-marital affairs, closeted or "down low" family and church members. 

Where do we go from here? We need more discussion on womanhood and sexuality. 

For Colored Girls

i found god in myself & i loved her/i loved her fiercely

This line represents what For Colored Girls is ultimately about.  It is about women making the journey from victimhood and self-destruction to self-acceptance and self-love.  Society, friends, family, lovers often tell women that they are not beautiful, not smart, not sexy, not desirable and women often internalize these feelings but once we learn in spite of obstacles to love ourselves fiercely then we can move forward.

Ntozake Shange

 

ntozake shange

(pronounced en-to-zaki shong-gay)

1948-

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Ntozake Shange was born Paulette Williams in Trenton, New Jersey on October 18, 1948. In 1971 she changed her name to Ntozake Shange which means "she who comes with her own things" and "she who walks like a lion" in Xhosa, the Zulu language. Her father was an Air Force surgeon and her mother was an educator and a psychiatric social worker. The Williams were upper middle class African Americans whose love of the arts contributed to an intellectually stimulating childhood for Shange and her three siblings. Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chuck Berry, and W. E. B. Du Bois were among the frequent guests at her parents' house.
In 1966 Shange enrolled at Barnard College and separated from her husband, a law student. She attempted suicide several times. Nonetheless, she graduated cum laude in American Studies in 1970 and entered the University of Southern California at Los Angeles, where she earned a master's degree in American Studies in 1973.
While living in California and teaching humanities and women's studies courses at Mills College in Oakland, the University of California Extension, and Sonoma State College, Shange began to associate with poets, teachers, performers, and black and white feminist writers who nurtured her talents. Shange and her friends began to perform their poetry, music, and dance in and around the San Francisco Area. Shange also danced with Halifu Osumare's company. Upon leaving the company she began collaborating with Paula Moss on the poetry, music, and dance that would become for colored girls Moss and Shange left California for New York and performed for colored girls in a Soho jazz loft and later in bars in the lower East Side. Producer Woodie King Jr. saw one of these shows and helped director Oz Scott stage the choreopoem Off-Broadway at the New Federal Theatre where it ran for eight months, after which it moved to the New York Shakespeare Company's Anspacher Public Theatre, and then to the Booth Theatre.
In addition to her plays, she has written poetry, novels, and essays. She has taught at California State College, the City College of New York, the University of Houston, Rice University, Yale, Howard, and New York University. Among her many awards are an Obie, a Los Angeles Time Book Prize for Poetry, and a Pushcart Prize.

PLAYS

"for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf: a choreopoem"-1975

First produced in New York City at Studio Riobea in 1975; produced Off-Broadway at the Anspacher Public Theatre in 1976; produced on Broadway at the Booth Theatre that same year.

"A Photograph"-1977

First produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre.

"Boogie Woogie Landscapes"-1979

First produced in New York at Frank Silvera's Writers' Workshop; first produced on Broadway at the Symphony Space Theatre in 1978.

"Spell #7"-1979

First produced Off-Broadway at Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theatre.

"Black and White Two Dimensional Planes"-1979

First proudced in New York at Sounds in Motion Studio Works.

"Mother Courage and Her Children"-1980

An adaptation of Brecht's play; first produced Off-Broadway at the Public Theatre, directed by Shange.

"Three for a Full Moon" and "Bocas"-1982

First produced at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.

"Educating Rita"-1982

Adapted from Willy Russell's script; first produced at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta.

"Three views of Mt. Fuji"-1987

First produced in San Francisco at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; first produced in New York at the New Dramatists.

AWARDS

"for colored girls...."

Obie Award, Outer Circle Critics Award, Audelco Award; and Tony, Grammy, and Emmy Award nominations, 1977

"Mother Courage and Her Children"

1981 Obie Award

For Colored Girls

 SPOILER ALERT!!
I went to see Tyler Perry's film adaptation of Ntozake Shange's powerful choreopoem last night and thought his approach was good but also highly commercial and limited.  Tyler Perry accepted a major challenge bringing For Colored Girls to the big screen and should be appreciated for that effort.

For Colored Girls was originally written in the mid-1970s so it deals with issues such as illegal abortions, Vietnam War veterans and timeless issues such as self-esteem, sexuality, post-traumatic stress disorder, religion, incest, rape, sexually transmitted diseases, infertility, etc. 
The original choreopoem consisted of about 20 choreographed monologues by women in various different colored outfits, (The Lady in Blue, The Lady in Red, The Lady in Brown, etc.) 
It is interesting to go on the web and see all these posts written by people offended by the movie's title, most of these people seem to not understand three crucial points:
1. The movie title is an abbreviation of the choreopoem title
2. The original characters were not identified by name but by outfit color
3. Colored is a state of mind, where a lot of African Americans still reside

Now granted in American history the word colored does not just have negative connotations, however in reference to For Colored Girls I think the word colored refers to the characters low self-esteem, victimhood and often self-destructive behaviors.  These women for the most part are presented as powerless or at least seeing themselves as powerless.
LET'S TALK
Questions this movie raised for me are what are we teaching our African Americans about womanhood in the 21st century?
What are African American attitudes toward sexuality?
How do we stop/prevent sexual violence against African American women and girls?
Please comment to the above questions.
Thank you!

Chaos or Community?

How do we define community in the 21st century?
How do we develop community or civic engagement?
What are some possible solutions to the problems we are currently facing?

After November 2, 2010: Where do we go from here?

On Tuesday November 2, 2010 the Republicans regained control of the United States House of Representatives, numerous state houses, and gubernatorial posts in their and the Tea Party's efforts to take the country back.  After a brief two years in control, the Democrats were lucky to barely hold on to a slim majority in the United States Senate. 
What happened?  According to the Tea Party and the Republican party too much government spending and according to the Democrats not enough job growth.  Mississippi ousted two marginal Democrats in Travis Childers and Gene Taylor, so that even Democrats who actively distanced themselves from President Obama lost their seats.  In two short years the nation has gone from embracing "change" and "hope" to embracing the party of "nope".
No Health Care
No new taxes
No earmarks
No compromises
No cooperation with President Obama or the Democrats
And according to new Florida United Senator Mark Rubio, no cooperation with even moderate Republicans either.  While more attention was focused on Sharron Angle of Nevada and Christine O'Donnell of Delaware, the Tea Party movement was able to get minorities such as Mark Rubio and  LTC Allen West of Florida and Tim Scott of South Carolina elected. 
But the mid-term elections are over and the question is where do we do from here?  November 2012 is less than two years away.  What are our priorities for the new two years?  Can the Democratic party and President Obama recover before the 2012 presidential elections?  What should they do to attract more African Americans and young people to the polls?