Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 787

Beyond #FergusonOctober by Davey D

Beyond #FergusonOctober by Davey D | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
So the weekend dubbed ‪#‎FergusonOctober‬ is over. Thousands took to the streets of St Louis on Saturday. They attended big rallies and concerts on Sunday. St Louis University campus was occupied by the Lost Voices folks and a demonstration kicked off. Folks confronted police at Quik Mart, Baseball games and football games. They shut down city hall and jammed up an upscale mall and protested in front of Walmart.
Hundreds of people in the pouring rain accompanied clergy to the Ferguson police department where a roll call of scores of people killed this year by police was read off with a request for police to step forward, confess and repent.
The clergy members were met with silence and a bit of hostility.
When folks attempted to cross the police line to meet with the police chief in an act of Civil Disobedience, police officers in riot gear started yelling that they were being assaulted and would charge them with that crime if they continued. Eventually 10 people were led off in handcuffs including Cornel West and Carl Dix of the Communist Party. They were later released.
The plan was for clergy to show solidarity with those on the ground dealing with police terrorism around the murders of Mike Brown and now Vonderrick Myers.  They were going to fill the jails the way Martin Luther King, Jr. and supporters did during the height of the Civil Rights Movements. The jails were not filled.
The question now is where do we go from here? It's not so much a question directed at folks in Ferguson, who will have to deal with an array of issues ranging from growing pains as a movement, to how they execute particular strategies both long and short term. They will have to figure out what sort of pressure to apply to make sure officer Darren Wilson is arrested, tried and convicted. Nationally speaking, he is becoming less and less of a household name with each passing day. How does that change?
They will have to figure out how to hold police departments accountable in surrounding cities like Pagedale and Jennings which have seen 5 or 6 hangings and attempted hangings in their holding cells since Mike Brown was murdered. Almost all the victims were in jail for traffic violations and if you believe the police accounts, they all killed or tried to kill themselves.
Folks in Ferguson and St Louis will have to figure out what sort of ways they can change the tactic used by police to pull over folks, hand out dubious traffic tickets and then charge residents thousands of dollars in court fees and fines. It has been pointed out that the newly built police station in Ferguson was paid for by all the fines collected for traffic violation levied on local Black residents.
The point is that folks in St Louis have their work cut out for them. Oppressive attitudes and systems will have to be pushed back on and eventually overhauled; How that happens remains to be seen.
But again the question at hand for everyone else is what next? Ferguson is ground zero because it was in the news as a result of the 'riots'/ rebellions after Brown was shot and killed, but police terrorism has not slowed down in the least all over the country. From Beavercreek, Ohio to New York City to Oakland, California to Houston, Texas there is incident after incident’ What do we collectively do next?
There is an election that is less than a month away? How will all this impact that date? Are candidates being targeted? Are they being questioned?
Former political prisoner and Black Panther Dhoruba Bin-Wahad at a recent gathering urged folks to address police accountability locally and use upcoming elections as a way to chin-check folks on policies ranging from the way policies are executed from block to block on down to pushing to make sure cops are required to live in the cities they patrol. There are numerous buttons to push legislatively. He urged us not to cede ground in that area.
For example, in Oakland, Ca there is hotly contested Mayoral race where many of the candidates have been expressing the desire to add more police. How will that be countered as we move toward the November contest? Some of those running for Mayor have stifled bills that would strengthen police review boards and give citizens tools to punish police. Local journalist Eric Arnold has written about this and pointed out candidates who are responsible for this.. What will be our response? Are people aware of the upcoming October 20th deadline in Cali to register to vote?
In San Jose there's a hotly contested Mayoral race where the main topic is how to get police to stay in the city of San Jose which has taken away major incentives for police. How will folks down there weigh in on that election?
Each city has something jumping off? What have we studied, what have we learned about DAs and judges running for office?
Outside of voting we have other things to consider. There have been lots of organizations holding classes letting folks know about their rights and how to conduct yourself when stopped by police to lessen the danger. Many are being taught how to deal with tax payer police before they are learning about the birds and the bees. That's how dire the situation has gotten.
Others are arming themselves with cameras to film the police and doing neighborhood watches. Think about that for a minute. Neighborhood watches to protect against police..Will this help stop the madness? What will be the punishment and who will issue it if cops are caught on tape violating citizen's rights?
Some are saying it’s about armed resistance and self defense strategies. If that's a tactic how are folks preparing? Are folks training? If so in what ways? What lessons from the past were learned? What is applicable today? Certainly they aren't posting up such actions on social media especially at a day and time where everything is monitored.
Still others are pushing to wake up folks and make them more aware. It was inspiring to see so many got on planes and buses to come to Ferguson, but was it enough? Were all hands on deck? Were our family and friends and folks living on our block aware and concerned
Thousands hit the streets but many more thousand were at the local football and baseball games in St Louis. Do those people need to be on deck in order to change what is impacting us? If so how do we reach them? How do we reach them when local and national media has moved on? We're now talking about Ebola not Ferguson.
Possible next steps for folks to consider? For starters, as a short term strategy I would encourage folks to make police terrorism and accountability an issue that anyone running for office in your local area have to address. From mayor to city council to school board, each of us should have hard questions about what those vying for office plan to do?
Folks can take it a step further by visiting a local campaign office or the official office of those holding seats. If Ferguson and police violence is on your mind, it should be on the minds of everyone who benefits from our tax dollars.. Police unions have made themselves known and felt to politicians how about us.
Long term we should all take some time out to read and re-read books on past movements, watch documentaries, talk with elders and start developing new tactics that make sense for 2014. We should study the way King and his SCLC cohorts studied Ghandi and others.
We should politically educate ourselves the way the Panthers and SNCC did. We should have a politic behind our actions. Does marching work? If so in what way in 2014? Does going to jail work in an act of civil disobedience? If so, how? Can we appeal to the moral compass of those brutalizing us? That was tried in Ferguson. Did it work? Is it a viable tactic? How does one carry that out?
Do we economically impact folks? What does that look like? Shutting down ports? boycotting stores? Boycotting cities? Is there a way to economically starve police?
For me personally what always bothered me about police showing up in riot gear and in mass numbers, 500 deep for demonstrations, was all the overtime that was being paid out. Here in Oakland, you have some officers making over 120k a year for monitoring marches while wearing riot gear and brandishing new weapons.
When folks were arrested at these demonstrations our resources went to paying excessive bails to spring folks and later to pay for lawyers and court costs. Even when the Clergy were arrested there was a call for folks to contribute to their bail fund. Seems to me lots of folks in the police terrorism food chain were getting paid. What's our strategy to end that? That's a long term strategy to think about.
As noted earlier, we know the police have a strategy to pay for new equipment and buildings. It's played out in places like Ferguson in the form of hitting folks with excessive fines and fees for traffic violations. In other places its abusing Civil Forfeiture laws where police take your money and car under the suspicion of you being a drug dealer even if you are not convicted. Those laws need to be changed.
Anyway that's my two cents for the day. Lets create something that goes beyond our wildest and most inspiring dreams.
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Davey D is a nationally recognized journalist, adjunct professor, Hip Hop historian, syndicated talk show host, radio programmer, producer, deejay, media and community activist.

ProPublica Analyzes 3 Decades Of Deadly Police Shootings: Black Men 21 Times More Likely to be Shot Dead

Deadly Force, in Black and White: A ProPublica analysis of killings by police shows outsize risk for young black males.

Talks at the Schomburg: The New Negro Renaissance Beyond Harlem

Schomburg Center
Historians Davarian Baldwin and Minkah Makalani, editors of Escape from New York: The New Negro Renaissance Beyond Harlem discuss their new book with Schomburg Director Khalil Gibran Muhammad.

Left of Black S5:E4: Mass Incarceration, Voting Rights & State Sanctioned Violence

Left of Black S5:E4: Mass Incarceration, Voting Rights & State Sanctioned Violence
Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined in-studio by Daryl Atkinson, Senior Staff Attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in North Carolina.  In a conversation about mass incarceration, the erosion of voting rights and State sanctioned violence Aktinson asserts that “the State sanctioned violence that we saw in Ferguson...cannot happen outside of the larger context of putting 2.2 million people in cages.”Left of Black is a weekly Webcast hosted by Mark Anthony Neal and produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Center and in conjunction with the Center for Arts, Digital Culture & Entrepreneurship (CADCE) at Duke University.*** Episodes of Left of Black are also available for free download in @ iTunes U*** Follow Left of Black on Twitter: @LeftofBlackFollow Mark Anthony Neal on Twitter: @NewBlackMan
Follow Southern Coalition for Social Justice on Twitter: @SCSJ

The Homer Plessy Charter School in New Orleans Marches to Own Tune

(Eric Westervelt/NPR) WBUR | NPR
As part of our series on the education revolution underway in the Crescent City, we profile a new, independent arts-centered charter that's struggling to put down roots.

Last Poet in Harlem: Abiodun Oyewole (dir. Vagabond Beaumont)

from Vagabond Beaumont

Original Last Poet Abiodun Oyewole talks about his life as a poet and his new upcoming book Branches Of The Tree Of Life published by 2Leaf Press. Branches Of The Tree Of Life collects over four decades of Abiodun's poetry. Last Poet In Harlem from vagabond Beaumont on Vimeo.

Flying Lotus and Flying Africans: "Never Catch Me" by Mark Anthony Neal

Flying Lotus and Flying Africans by Mark Anthony Neal | NewBlackMan (in Exile)
As yet another #hashtag circulated—this time #16times—in reference to yet another of those shootings in Missouri, you perhaps get just an inkling of the spiritual and emotional fatigue of those who have to live with the realities of those deaths, and those of us left to wonder if the next one will be closer to home, if not the heart. 
Not always sure that the killings are more—or any more real than they were before the Chocolate Supa-Highway, to use a distinctly post-analog, but not quite digital reference; The killings are what they are, and like Mamas and Papas Soul taught us almost three generations ago, we march—as much a metaphor for getting up in the morning as it is another call to take the streets.
We Dance is what Flying Lotus, joined by Kendrick Lamar tells us now, in the brilliant visual rendering of the former’s “Never Catch Me” from his just released You’re Dead!  Visually “Never Catch Me” directed by Hiro Murai continues the tradition of Lotus’s “Phantasm” (dir. Markus Hofko) and the Khalil Joseph directed short for “Until the Quiet Comes.” Like the work that Terence Nance has done with Pharoahe Monch and Blitz the Ambassador, it’s a reminder of that some of the most arresting art being produced in the name of Hip-Hop is well beyond the “Beats and Rhymes.” 
“Never Catch Me” is answering Kendrick’s earlier query, “will you sing about me?” (or tweet about me perhaps more apropos for this minute), with, perhaps, we will Dance for you.  The opening scene of “Never Catch Me” is as familiar as it is unremarkable, whether pastoring to the deaths of dreams or ministering to the bodies that are all too real to those of us who choose to count the losses; the scattered bodies of the so-called living, each seemingly counting ‘till their own demise is confirmation that life and promise and ambition have long left these pews. The two bodies, actually dead–even on their miniaturized cooling boards—seem more alive, a point the film makes emphatic when both emerge, mid-footwork to dance the dance electric—to riff off of Andre Cymone, by way of Prince, by way of Whitman.  Is it still a Second Line if the dead are more free to dance than the living?
That we are burying children seems not to be the point; in the moment of Renisha, Jonathan, Eric--we’re all innocents—ain’t no saint and sinners in this, only dead Black bodies.  That these are presumably sister and brother—collateral damage in wars never designed to save their lives, even had they lived—provides clarity after a summer of “my brother’s keeper” and “my sister’s keeper.”   They were not in need of belts, bow-times, appropriately-lengthened skirts and caring adults in their lives.
They dance in death, because it is the only place they are, quite frankly, allowed to live, recalling Lawrence Fishburne channeling an early cinematic rendering of  Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson in the film The Cotton Club : “the White man ain’t left me nothing but the underworld, and that is were I dance.”
The sprint through the church, through the wake room, amidst Soulclaps of praise--like that iconic “Praise Break” from Richard Smallwood—out into a world of fellow others living and playing as they could never in life—leading to the awaiting hearse, Sister taking the wheel,  reminiscent of the best traditions; Flying Africans, as  Soyica Diggs Corbett  writes, “in it’s earliest renditions in the United States…offered hope for freedom and transcendence, even though that flight might mean physical death.”

As children we can imagine flight, as fast as it is fleeting, yet as Gerima showed in that majestic closing battle in Sankofa, sometimes our flight never leaves the ground—sometimes it’s just a drive home, in the big car. 

GlobalGirl Media at The Fak'ugesi Digital Africa Festival 2014 in Johannesburg

GlobalGirl Media
The Amaze Digital Games Festival at Fakugesi2014--hosted by Wits University, which brings top African and international digital visionaries to Braamfontein, Johannesburg in an exciting range of public events.

#WhenTheWordsWereMine: The Yellow Typewriter

“Don’t really know why she gave me that typewriter.  It was bright yellow and plastic—odd for a typewriter and knowing my mother, an odd gift for her son. True, I used to play around with her typewriter—the kind of thing that gave  “punch the keys” its resonance—and indeed it was the machine I did most of my early writing, after I discarded that yellow thing.  But it was not like we had ever talked about it; I’m sure my mother would not have been anymore confused (and concerned) had I told her I wanted to be a writer when I was 5—back when me and the BFF used to share the 1231 stoop and just dream out loud—than she actually was, when I told her I was a poet at 19.  And yeah, it was her old typewriter that accompanied me to college and was the machine I wrote those first poems on.”

Are the Gods Afraid of Black Sexuality? A Two-Day Conference at Columbia University -- Oct. 23-24

Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS)
On October 23-24, 2014, the Institute for Research in African-American Studies (IRAAS) at Columbia University will convene “Are the Gods Afraid of Black Sexuality?  Religion and the Burdens of Black Sexual Politics.”  The meetings for our two-day event will be held in New York City, on the campus of Columbia University, October 23-34, 2014.  An evening plenary on Thursday, October 23rd will be hosted at First Corinthians Baptist Church in Harlem. 
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DAY ONE: Thursday, October 23, 2014 Earl Hall, Columbia University, New York City 9:00-10:00 A.M. Registration and Continental Breakfast  10:00-10:30  A.M. Welcome & Opening RemarksSamuel K. Roberts, Associate Professor of History and Socio-Medical Sciences; Director, Institute for Research in African-American StudiesJosef Sorett, Conference Organizer, Assistant Professor of Religion & African-American Studies; Founding Director, Center on African American Religion, Sexual Politics & Social Justice (CARSS) 10:30am-12:30 P.M.  Religion, Media, Markets and the Making of Black SexualitiesModerator: Anthea Butler, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies, University of PennsylvaniaFrederick Davie, Executive Vice President, Union Theological SeminaryDeon Haywood, Executive Director, Women With A VisionDarnell L. Moore, Managing Co-Editor, Feminist Wire and Co-Founder, YOU BelongBarbara D. Savage, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Chair of the Department of Africana Studies, University of PennsylvaniaChristopher Senyonjo, Bishop, Anglican Church of Uganda (retired) and Founder and Executive Director, St. Paul’s Reconciliation and Equality Centre 12:30-1:30 P.M. Lunch on Your Own 1:30-3:15 P.M.  Religious Narratives of Black Sexuality in the New World Moderator: Farah Griffin, William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature and African-American Studies, Columbia UniversityWallace Best, Professor of Religion and African American Studies, Princeton UniversityLyndon K. Gill, Assistant Professor of African & African Diaspora Studies and Anthropology, University of Texas at AustinLeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant, Associate Professor of Africana Studies, Williams CollegeRespondent: Tracey E. Hucks, James D. Vail III Professor of Africana Studies, Davidson College 3:15-3:30 P.M. BREAK 3:30-5:15 P.M.  The Religious Aesthetic & Cultural Politics of Black SexualityModerator: Marcellus Blount, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia UniversityMelvin L. Butler, Assistant Professor of Music, University of ChicagoErica R. Edwards, Associate Professor of English, University of California, RiversideJeffrey Q. McCune, Associate Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Performance Studies, Washington University in St. LouisRespondent: Judith Weisenfeld, Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion, Princeton University 5:15-7:00 P.M.  Dinner on Your Own 7:00-9:00 P.M. Public Conversation at First Corinthians Baptist Church, HarlemThe Sexual Politics of Black Sacred Music Moderator: Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music, University of PennsylvaniaYvette Flunder, Senior Pastor, City of Refuge United Church of Christ and Presiding Bishop, The Fellowship of Affirming MinistriesDonnie Johnson, independent Singer/Songwriter/MythographerDAY TWO: Friday, October 24, 2014
Earl Hall, Columbia University, New York City
9:00-10:15  A.M. Keynote Conversation:  "Queering Racial Justice"Moderator: Jennifer Leath, Visiting Lecturer, WSRP Research Associate, Harvard Divinity SchoolAlondra Nelson, Dean of Social Sciences and Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies, Columbia UniversityEmilie Townes, Dean and the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society, Vanderbilt University 10:15-10:30 A.M.  Break 10:30am-12:00 P.M. Captive Bodies: The Sexual Politics of Policing BlacknessModerator: Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law and co-founder and Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture, Columbia UniversityRobert E. Fullilove, Associate Dean for Community and Minority Affairs and Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia UniversityReina Gossett, Activist-In-Residence, Barnard College’s Center for Research on WomenJanet Jakobsen, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Director, Center for Research on Women, Barnard College, Columbia UniversityMignon R. Moore, Associate Professor of Sociology, Barnard College, Columbia University Respondent: Jafari Allen, Associate Professor of Anthropology and African American Studies, Yale University 12:00-1:00 P.M.  Lunch on Your OwnRelocate to Miller Theater  1:00-4:00 P.M.  "Representing Religion, Contesting Sexuality: A Screening of clips from five documentary films, followed by a dialouge with the directors" at Miller Theater, Columbia University, New York CityModerator: Mark Anthony Neal, Professor of African and African American Studies, Duke UniversityElegance Bratton, Pier Kids: The LifeJune Cross, Wilhemena’s WarAmir Dixon, Friends of EssexYoruba Richen, The New BlackAishah Shahidah Simmons, NO! The Rape Documentary 4:00-4:15 P.M.  BreakRelocate to Earl Hall 4:15-6:15 P.M.Closing Plenary at Earl Hall, Columbia University, New York CityBeyond the Burdens: Engendering the Sexual Futures of Black Religion Moderator: Kelly Brown Douglass, Director of the Religion Program and Susan D. Morgan Professor of Religion, Goucher CollegeWalidah Imarisha, Co-editor, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice MovementsLeslie D. Callahan, Pastor, St. Paul Baptist ChurchKenyon Farrow, US & Global Health Policy Director, Treatment Action GroupAmina Wadud, Professor Emeritus of Islamic Studies and Visiting Scholar at the Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley CAJonathan L. Walton, Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Harvard University and Professor of Religion and Society on the Faculty of Divinity 6:15-6:30 P.M.  Closing Remarks, Josef Sorett 6:30-7:30 P.M. Post-Conference Reception