Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 891

theSWAGspot: Intimate Public Space to Talk Love, Lessons and Legacy With Men for Men

theSWAGspot: Intimate Public Space to Talk Love, Lessons and Legacy With Men for Men by Esther Armah | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
"The woman who loved me for me told me I had a dysfunctional way of showing I love someone. That if I needed to display hate to show that I loved, I never really loved, I was truly lost."
Crunched over a computer, with his hair braided into two cornrows that touch his shoulders, Jason Davis writes a letter about lessons in love. The letter continues, "My very first love was at the age of 16, when I was accepted by a group of brothers of the gang I joined. We learned and adopted the idea of love in the form of fighting, lying, stealing." Jason stands around 6 feet tall. He's chocolate and fine. His upper body is covered in deep, deep scars from years of self-mutilation. The scars are interrupted by skin: some scars came from rage, some from loss, some from hurt. Jason started cutting himself at age nine. No one in his family knew. Mom was working hard -- a workaholic, he explains. Pop? He was a mean drunk who beat both him and his mama. Years ago, Jason was on Delaware's Most Wanted List. Now, he's a daddy of four, who works, talks, and writes to persuade young men that while a yearning for love might prompt them to join a gang, it may also open them to an intimate relationship with violence, death, jail and trauma. Jason is finding his way as a pop. He's being challenged, and he's working to heal.
His letter is one of many written by men for a special multi media, multi-platform campaign to launch theSWAGspot, a digital village via Tumblr, a safe space for intimate public conversations that tackle traditional masculinity. Through letters, notes, poems, and stories, men talk, share, exchange, and write about love, forgiveness, regret, rage, hurt, power, partnership, heart break, dishonesty, leadership, soul, being a man, a pop, a brother, an ally and so much more. It is sacred space created to elevate men's emotional consciousness and to get down to doing the emotional work that is needed to transform self, relationships, institutions, leadership and our movements. On June 12, a live event in New York City's Dwyer Cultural Center in Manhattan will feature Jason Davis in conversation with award winning journalist Jeff Johnson and poet and lecturer Mo Beasley.
Why theSWAGspot? Girls are dying. And men and boys are killing them while other men and boys stand by and watch. Statistics reveal epidemics: homicide of women by men, sexual assault, rape. Facts and figures, however, don't capture feelings -- a necessary connection if we want to effect real change. The deadly connection of the personal to the political, cultural as well as to policy is making traditional masculinity a mass murderer of bodies, spirits, and possibilities. We're witnesses to death via rap lyrics by brothers, through policy written by white Republican politicians, and through tradition in the military; rape culture is complicit in all these cases and spaces.
Why theSWAGspot? Because boys are dying. And men and boys are killing them: sexually, spiritually, emotionally, and lyrically. Why theSWAGspot? Because women are held responsible for all the violence inflicted upon them.  Why theSWAGspot? Because traditional masculinity has put and kept the full spectrum of human emotional expression in a chokehold. Women have led the movements to end violence against women. Men and boys must become a part of those movements too -- to not only end violence against women but also to deal with their own traumas. One often reflects the other. Why theSWAGspot? Every dude wants swag. Let's re-imagine and re-define it with heart, soul, truth, and emotionality.
How do you socialize more men to publicly challenge other men and to engage and exchange with each other when offensive dangerous behavior occurs? How do you do that? How do you encourage, inspire, demand, and challenge more men not to deflect their own and others' abusive and violent actions, but to focus on that behavior? How do you encourage many more boys and men to speak out, to stay standing, to do more than the absolute very least or nothing at all when it comes to the global avalanche of violence against women? How do you transform a masculinity that normalizes violence, celebrates aggression and anaesthetizes feelings? By doing the emotional work. For me, that is emotional justice -- a space where untreated trauma is given voice; where space is made safe so tough truths can be told and change can happen. Public intellectual, scholar and writer Dr Brittney Cooper has said: "there can be no emotional justice without the equal division of emotional labor." In order to divide the labor, we must all first do the emotional work. That means creating a process in which men can engage with each other, for each other and about each other in a format where geography, economics, titles don't create boundaries or barriers: that's theSWAGspot.
Jason is one of many men writing letters to their younger selves on theSWAGspot about the lessons they've learned and the legacies they've lived and are seeking to heal. There are letters by bishops, doctors, pastors, organization CEOs, teens on Rikers Island, among others. The men are black and white, of different ages and generations. Some letters are signed while others are not. They share poems and stories too. This digital village on Tumblr is a safe space to have tough conversations. There are organizations and individuals doing various forms of this work: A Call To Men, MANup Inc., Men Can Stop Rape, Brothers Writing to Live Campaign are just a few. theSWAGspot partners with them to create a bigger village with easy access.
theSWAGspot uses the digital revolution to wage an emotional one. It takes the process of mentoring, parenting, loving, challenging, and disciplining and pours it into a space that men have access to, can communicate within, and, importantly, can explore. Process is messy; it's rarely neat or sweet. Shit gets said that is painful and powerful. Men need what women have been socialized to create -- safe space to emote. We built it.
Welcome to theSWAGspot.
***
Esther Armah is the creator of ‘Emotional Justice Unplugged’, the multi platform, multi media intimate public arts and conversation series. She’s a New York Radio Host for WBAI99.5FM, a regular on MSNBC’s Up with Chris Hayes and an international journalist, Playwright and National best-selling author. Follow her on twitter @estherarmah For Emotional Justice, go to: www.facebook.com/emotionaljustice. She is the author of the upcoming book: Emotional Justice; A Kiss Goodbye To Struggle.

Courtney B. Vance Wins 'Best Featured Actor' in a Play ay 2013 Tony Awards: Acceptance Speech

Courtney B. Vance of Lucky Guy accepting a Tony Award during the 2013 Tony ceremony.

Cicely Tyson Wins 'Best Actress" at 2013 Tony Awards: Acceptance Speech [video]

The Tony Awards
Cicely Tyson of The Trip to Bountiful accepting a Tony Award during the 2013 Tony ceremony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.

"Roomieloverfriends" | Episode 3 of 5‬ ‪ [Season 2‬]

BlackandSexyTV

Starring Shayla Hale, Andra Fuller, Yaani King, Teagen Rose + Austen Jaye


Created and Written by Dennis Dortch + Numa Perrier @MissNuma

Executive Producer: Issa Rae
Produced by Numa Perrier

Produced by Desmond Faison 

Associate Producers: Irwin Daniels, Krystal Bradford, and Dean Russell

Directed by Dennis Dortch

Cinematography by Will Novy
Post Picture: Brian Ali-Harding
Edited by Jamila Gray

Make Up: Sydney Milan

Hair: Erin Smith

Edited by D. Dortch

Production Assistant: Jean Black, Maya Morales



Special Thanks: Brian Ali-Harding, Odessa Bowden (Nobody Jones) & Desmond Faison




FEATURED MUSIC:

" ' Cause I Love You" +"Call of Duty" by Diggs Duke (‪http://diggsduke.com/‬)

"Rose Tea" by B.Jamelle (http://www.bjamelle.com/)

Theme song "Chemistry" written and performed by Allegra Dolores @allegradolores

Produced by Henry "Lukecage" Willis


PURCHASE + DOWNLOAD AT: ‪‪http://blackandsexytv.bandcamp.com/‬‬

Reentry: The Interest on Your Debt to Society #CollateralConsequences

ExittheApple

A conversation about Collateral Consequenses appending to a criminal conviction in Maryland. You can hear real stories from ex-offenders at http://www.linesbetweenus.org/your-st... 
Special to The Lines Between Us, WYPR.

The Beat Making Lab in Senegal: "Health Worker Beat"

Beat Making Lab
Ina, a Senegalese beat making student, takes a field trip to an Intrahealth hospital to make a beat. She records baby squeals and blood pressure gauges; and interviews health workers and community leaders about family planning. These recordings were then delivered to a group of Fijian beat making students, who composed an instrumental entirely comprised of the found sounds. 
Beat Making Lab partnered with Intrahealth on the Health Worker Beat, to use electronic music to shed light on family planning, which is one of the most important health issues in West Africa. 
The Architects: Stephen Levitin (aka Apple Juice Kid) and Pierce FreelonMastermind of Videography and Editing: Saleem Reshamwala aka Kid Ethnic
Musical Poetry: Fiji Beat Making Lab
Grasshopper: Ina (of GOTAL)
Show Wrapper Magicians: Josh Souter (stop motion/logo), Emily Forsberg (photography), Kelly Mertestdorf (producer)
Senegal kin folk: Pape Gauye, Speak Up Africa: Fara Ndiaye, Awa Ndoye, Yacine Djibo, Felix and Abdul; Toussa's family, Intrahealth, Blaise Senghor Cultural Center, Darra J Family, Julie Pitts [Woodville NC]. 
We would like to give special thanks Ali Colleen Neff, who introduced us to Toussa and GOTAL. This project would not have been possible without her insight and support. Read more about Ali Colleen Neef's work on women and hip hop in Senegal: 
http://www.socialtextjournal.org/peri...
http://www.ethnolyrical.org/?p=677

MHP Show: Why the Rest of the Country Needs to Care About the Political Protest in North Carolina

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Common Core and Rock & Roll: Random Thoughts About Scripted Learning by Mark Naison

The Common Core and Rock & Roll: Random Thoughts About Scripted Learningby Mark Naison | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
For the last few days, I have been reading one depressing post after another from dedicated veteran teachers saying that every ounce of joy and creativity has been squeezed our of their classrooms by tests, assessments, micromanaging administrators and the scripted learning that come with adoption of the Common Core standards.  In the discussion threads these posts have provoked, many people have commented that younger teachers don't feel the same despair, because carefully scripted teaching is all they have ever experienced.  And the conversation made me wonder, could these young teachers be, in their own way, extremely effective with the methods they have been acclimated to. Can there be great teaching when people follow scripts given to them from the top down?
And the whole conversation made me think about music. I was about to say that great teaching, like great music, is incompatible with careful scripting. Imagine someone trying to script a great jazz musician like John Coltrane or Charlie Parker, whose greatest music was improvised--or the Grateful Dead
But then I started thinking of Rock & Roll,  and realized the picture was much more complicated. Some of the greatest rock and roll was scripted by dictatorial producers who basically took every ounce of freedom away from their artists.   Phil Spector did this with The Crystals and The Ronettes,  Berry Gordy did it with The Temptations, The Four Tops, Martha and the Vandellas, and The early Marvin Gaye.   And there was careful scripting in great songs that came out of the Brill Building with The Drifters, The Shirelles and other artists who performed the songs by writers like Carol King and Gerry Goffin,  and Leiber and Stoller.   And all of those songs were heartwarming, beautiful, memorable—landmarks of my childhood.
But what if that was the only Rock & Roll that was every produced?  Where would that leave  Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, The Doors, The Jefferson Airplane, Bob Dylan, Sly and the Family Stone, The Beatles, The Stones, Aretha Franklin,  Parliament Funkadelic, Santana, the post-Vietnam Temptations and Marvin Gaye. Wouldn't we have gotten bored with what we had, however harmonic and beautiful it was? Wouldn't we have missed explosions of genius that changed our perceptions, expanded our minds, and changed the way people played their instruments, and use their voices.
Under certain circumstances, scripting teaching, as well as scripting music, can produce interesting, occasionally inspiring results, but if all you do is script, you snuff out the creative impulse that allows us to reinvent ourselves and change the world. Creating a uniform world of scripted teaching and learning that imposes uniformity on a diverse nation, and children with diverse aptitudes, is a prescription for educational and intellectual stagnation.
We need an education that not only inspires and instructs, but to paraphrase the words of Jimi Hendrix "Let’s children's freak flag fly, high!"
***

Mark Naison is a Professor of African-American Studies and History at Fordham University and Director of Fordham’s Urban Studies Program. He is the author of two books, Communists in Harlem During the Depression and White Boy: A Memoir. Naison is also co-director of the Bronx African American History Project (BAAHP). Research from the BAAHP will be published in a forthcoming collection of oral histories Before the Fires: An Oral History of African American Life From the 1930’s to the 1960’s.

"A Massive Surveillance State": Glenn Greenwald Exposes Massive NSA Program Collecting Calls, Emails

Democracy Now
We speak with Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald, who broke the story Thursday that the National Security Agency has obtained access the central servers of nine major internet companies -- including Google, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Facebook. The Guardian and the Washington Post revealed the top secret program, code-named PRISM, after they obtained several slides from a 41-page training presentation for senior intelligence analysts. It explains how PRISM allows them to access emails, documents, audio and video chats, photographs, documents and connection logs that allow them to track a person or trace their connections to others. One slide lists the companies by name and the date when each provider began participating over the past six years. "Hundreds of millions of Americans, and hundreds of millions -- in fact billions of people around the world -- essentially rely on the internet exclusively to communicate with one another," Greenwald says. "Very few people use landline phones for much of anything. So when you talk about things like online chat, and social media messages, and emails, what you're really talking about is the full extent of human communication." This comes after Greenwald revealed Wednesday in another story that the NSA has been collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. "They want to make sure that every single time human beings interact with one another ... that they can watch it, and they can store it, and they can access it at any time."

Democracy Now: Civil Rights Veteran Chokwe Lumumba Elected Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi

Democracy Now
Just days before the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Medgar Evers in Jackson, Mississippi, the city's voters have elected longtime black nationalist organizer and attorney Chokwe Lumumba to become mayor. Describing himself as a "Fannie Lou Hamer Democrat," Lumumba surprised many political observers by winning the Democratic primary, despite being outspent five to one. He went on to easily win this week's general election. Over the past four decades Lumumba has been deeply involved in numerous political and legal campaigns. As an attorney, his clients have included former Black Panther Assata Shakur and the late hip hop artist Tupac Shakur. As a political organizer, Lumumba served for years as vice-president of the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for "an independent predominantly black government" in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery. He also helped found the National Black Human Rights Coalition and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. "People should take a note of Jackson, because we have suffered some of the worst kinds of abuses in history," Lumumba says. "But we're about to make some advances and some strides in the development of human rights and the protection of human rights that I think have not been seen in other parts of the country."