mnemosyne

b. medusa 29 September 2007 2:54:38 pm

this link was too important to wait for a collation of other sightings because:

I think it’s so important to put out there, as somebody took a real risk to get it out to the world, you know? – brownfemipower
Violence in Burma (updated since 9/26, w/ additional info in the comments)

additional sightings will be added later.

Later (10/1):

Security Guards’ Confrontation With Students Prompts Protest
Security Guard Acted Violent, Uttered Epithets, Student Says

POSTED: 11:05 pm PDT September 27, 2007
UPDATED: 11:57 am PDT September 28, 2007

PALMDALE, Calif. — Parents and students at Knight High School protested Friday morning because of an incident in which three teenagers and a mother were arrested last Thursday after alercations with security guards, prompting an investigation into the guards’ behavior.

The altercations were videotaped by students at a birthday celebration during the school’s lunch hour. At some point, birthday cake was tossed around and landed on the floor, sparking a series of events.

A female student who is shown on the video being held down by a guard said she had dropped cake and bent down to clean it up. She said when the security guard told her to clean up part of the mess that had been overlooked, a verbal altercation erupted — and quickly turned physical.

The security guard grabbed her by the arm as she headed out, the student said. She said the security guard was overzealous in twisting her arms and, despite her pleas, he broke her wrist, which was later put into a cast.

“He grabbed me by my arm and put my arm behind my back and pulled it up until it hurt,” said student Pleajhai Mervin. “Then, he slammed me on the table.”

The security guard called her a “nappy-head,” Mervin said.

full story @ KNBC site (includes image & video links). Call to Action @ ProfBlackWoman.

• activism , imperialism , militarism , oppression , violence
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b. medusa 23 September 2007 12:00:19 am

September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967

Coltrane has been credited with reshaping modern jazz and being the predominant influence on successive generations of saxophonists. Along with tenor saxophonists Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, and Sonny Rollins, Coltrane fundamentally altered expectations for the instrument.

[...]

During the latter part of 1957, Coltrane worked with Thelonious Monk at New York City’s Five Spot Cafe during a legendary six-month gig. Unfortunately, this association was not extensively documented, and the best-recorded evidence demonstrating the compatibility of Coltrane with Monk, a concert at Carnegie Hall on November 29, 1957, was only discovered and issued in 2005 by Blue Note, along with another of their recordings, The Complete 1957 Riverside Recordings. His extensive recordings as a sideman and as a leader for Prestige have a mixed reputation. Blue Train, his sole date as leader for Blue Note, is widely considered his best album from this period.

He rejoined Davis in January 1958. In October 1958, jazz critic Ira Gitler coined the term “sheets of sound” to describe the unique style Coltrane developed during his stint with Monk and was perfecting in Miles’ group, now a sextet. His playing was compressed, as if whole solos passed in a few seconds, with rapid runs cascading in hundreds of notes per minute. He stayed with Davis until April 1960, working with, in due course, alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderley; pianists Red Garland, Bill Evans, and Wynton Kelly; bassist Paul Chambers; and drummers Philly Joe Jones and Jimmy Cobb. During this time he participated in such seminal Davis sessions as Milestones and Kind Of Blue, and the live recordings, Miles & Monk at Newport and Jazz at the Plaza. Also towards the end of this period he recorded his own influential sessions (notably Giant Steps whose title track is generally considered to have the most complex and difficult chord progression of any widely-played Jazz composition).

[...]

Coltrane formed his first group, a quartet, in 1960. After moving through different personnel including Steve Kuhn, Pete LaRoca, and Billy Higgins, the lineup stabilized in the fall with pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Art Davis, and drummer Elvin Jones. Tyner, from Philadelphia, had been a friend of Coltrane’s for some years and the two men long had an understanding that the pianist would join Coltrane when Tyner felt ready for the exposure of regularly working with him.

While still with Miles, Coltrane had signed a contract with Atlantic Records, for whom he recorded the aforementioned Giant Steps. His first record with his new group was the hugely successful My Favorite Things, whose title track, a catchy waltz by Rodgers and Hammerstein (as well as Cole Porter’s “Every Time We Say Goodbye”), featured Coltrane on soprano. This new sound was coupled with further exploration. For example, on the Gershwin tune “But Not for Me,” Coltrane employs the kinds of restless harmonic movement of his Giant Steps period (movement in major thirds rather than conventional perfect fourths) over the A sections instead of a conventional turnaround progression.

Shortly before completing his contract with Atlantic in May 1961 (with the album Olé Coltrane), Coltrane joined the newly formed Impulse! label, with whom the “Classic Quartet” would record. It is generally assumed that the clinching reason Coltrane signed with Impulse! was that it would enable him to work again with recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder, who had taped both his and Davis’s Prestige sessions, as well as Blue Train. It was at Van Gelder’s new studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey that Coltrane would record most of his records for the label.

By early 1961, bassist Davis had been replaced by Reggie Workman. Eric Dolphy joined the group as a second horn around the same time. The quintet had a celebrated (and extensively recorded) residency in November 1961 at the Village Vanguard, which demonstrated Coltrane’s new direction. It featured the most experimental music he’d played up to this point, influenced by Indian ragas, the recent developments in modal jazz, and the burgeoning free jazz movement. Longtime Sun Ra saxophonist John Gilmore was particularly influential; the most celebrated of the Vanguard tunes, the 15-minute blues, “Chasin’ the ‘Trane,” was strongly inspired by Gilmore’s music.

excerpted from the wikipedia

i could go on, but you can read the whole thing by clicking the wikipedia link above.

i wanted to put up a performance of Spiritual but couldn’t find that one on youtube. and then i saw this:

i had this version of Alabama on a cd that was stolen from me (never been able to replace it). sooo good to hear it again.

• art , birthday , jazz , music , poetry
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b. medusa 20 September 2007 4:45:23 pm

like every other site i have visited online regarding this story, i am disgusted, sickened, horrified. paralyzed into silence even for more than a few days by the horror of it (but sadly not shocked or surprised). since first encountering the initial story via Black Amazon & Vox ex Machina, the Anxious Black Woman has also weighed in on the DV aspect & the release of the victim’s name w/ some extremely thoughtful commentary . Black & Missing provides comprehensive coverage of the case. Elle, phd & Prof Black Woman bring us the news of the latest outrage of this case.

Vox ex Machina has several posts documenting hate crimes:

• the College Racism Roundup
• Hate Crimes on the Rise
• Hate Crime, Sex Crime

thanks to Tom @ Automatic Preference, i found the very comprehensive & detailed summary of the Jena 6 case over @ Black & Missing. She details what has been going on, who has documented the case up to this point, what strategies have been employed, who’s doing what, what folx can do to help, & provides links. all this in addition to her usual mission of documenting missing poc & making sure the missing receive the attention they deserve.

if you aren’t in Jena today (20 Sep), hopefully you have signed up & are participating in the Virtual March, wearing black, sporting an armband or @ the very least passing the word on. hat tip to Yobachi @ Blackperspectives.net for the word that Mychal Bell is still sitting in jail & heads up on the virtual march.

for those who’ve been shocked by what happened in Jena, here are a couple of perspectives on why some of us aren’t:

• Do You Understand Where You Are? (hat tip to BA)
• The Jena Six: An American Tragedy and a Shameful Reality

two very informative posts on hate crime in general (XP’s), and from up close & personal (Zuky). both posts are cited in Vox ex Machina’s post on Hate Crimes on the Rise (linked above)

finally, getting away from hate crime for a moment (or am i?), i’m sure you heard about the unnecessary use of force @ u of fl (student tasered @ event where john kerry was present). less known about is the beat down Lennox Yearwood got @ the capitol (the man will be on crutches for weeks), & like Cindy Sheehan i’d like to know why so many “fellow activists” silently stood by & watched while it was happening. i think i know, but i’d like to hear someone try to explain it w/o sounding totally fuckin’ lame. especially those who’ve wondered why the antiwar movement is so “white”.

• activism , hate crime , jena 6 , networking , oppression , organizing , rape , violence
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b. medusa 13 September 2007 9:55:53 am

R.A.M. performs in the Creative Convergence Festival @ the Baltimore Theatre Project, Thursday, October 4th.

Creative Convergence is a festival celebration of Arts and Community that will take place over five days: October 3 -7, 2007 (performances begin @ 8pm except Sunday, 7pm). Coming on the heels of the US Social Forum (www.ussf2007.org), Creative Convergence aims to identify and share the strengths of artists in the DC-Baltimore region as an integral piece of a movement towards sustained social change.

Our vision for Creative Convergence includes a workshop series (including youth-led workshops for young people and adults) and performance series (highlighting the dynamic work of artists whose work intersects with social justice). We encourage all artists whose work focuses on or reflects social issues, community building to attend.

The Convergence has three principal goals:

1. To provide space for artists and activists to share their work through performances and workshops.
2. Workshops will provide participatory opportunities to engage in demonstrations of processes used in community-based work as well as engage in conversations around various systemic oppressions.
3. Network and brainstorm about potential partnerships across the region.

As a regional event, Creative Convergence will provide opportunities for artists, activists, organizers, educators and progressive institutions to connect with other like-minded change agents in the DC/MD/VA/WVA region. Thanks to support from Alternate ROOTS Community Arts Partnership.

Creative Convergence is co-presented by Alternate ROOTS, Baltimore Theatre Project and ClancyWorks Dance Company.

Ticket Prices for Workshops and Performances (Unless Otherwise Noted)
$15 General, $12 Student/Artist, $7 Youth (17 & Under)

Performances
All performances at Baltimore Theatre Project

Wednesday – Oct 3
8:00pm – FREE Performance!
Sponsored by Free Fall Baltimore
Courtney Weber
The Collective
Deletta Gillespie

Thursday – Oct 4
8:00pm
DishiBem Dance Group
Run of the Mill Theater
Black Codes
Radical Artist Movement

Friday – Oct 5
8:00pm
Encounter Risk
The Everlutionary Trust
Air Borne Dance
Marietta Hedges
Stephanie Powell

Saturday – Oct 6
8:00pm
Brave Soul Collective
Quest
ClancyWorks Dance Company
Jennifer Lanier
Reggie Glass

Sunday – Oct 7
7:00pm
Maura M .Garcia
Kuumba Collective
Laura Schandelmeier & Stephen Clapp
Updraft

Special Events

Friday, Oct 5 at 6:00pm
Activist Networking Cocktail Hour
at Baltimore Theatre Project

This networking cocktail hour will provide a space for Activists, Organizers, and Artists to discuss their current projects and potential future partnerships.

Sunday, Oct 7 at 10:00am
Sunday Brunch
at Creative Alliance

This brunch is designed to provide artists and activists in the region with an opportunity to network and discuss community-based art-making in Baltimore. How can cultural workers deal with their own needs as well as forge head in building partnerships that contribute to making long term social change? Through small group discussion and Q and A with Panelists we will be exploring that answer.

Workshops
Thursday, October 4, 2007
1:30pm – FREE – at Goucher College Meyerhoff Arts Center — Dunnock Theatre
Alternate ROOTS:Resources for Social Change – Exploring principles for partnerships between Artists and communities.

Resources for Social Change (RSC) is a training program developed by Alternate ROOTS that teaches ideas and techniques to develop sustained social change through art. This workshop will focus on five principles as a model for artists working with community: Shared Power; Equitable Partnership, Open Dialogue, Individual and Community Transformation, Aesthetic including Beauty and Justice.

4:00pm – FREE – at Goucher College Todd Dance Studio
Kip Lee: Building Inclusive Community through Dance

This workshop is for anyone who teaches dance or wants to develop community dance projects for people of all ages, from young teens through senior adults, people with little or no dance experience, and people with physical disabilities or mild to moderate intellectual disabilities. The workshop is also for anyone who wants to experience inclusive dance and dance-making.

Friday, October 5, 2007
4:00pm – at University of Baltimore
The Collective: Community Building through Improvisation

Our goal is to make the impossible seem possible. This workshop will address the strength of community building to accomplish seemingly impossible goals. Through various trust building exercises and dance demonstrations, the workshop participants will accomplish a community goal of creating a new dance through improvisation. This workshop is geared to the general public, open to all ages and ability levels.

Saturday, October 6, 2007
9:30am – FREE – at Maryland Institute College of Art
Art on Purpose: Speaking of Silence

The “Speaking of Silence” workshop will address the rich and layered meanings of silence. How does silence play a role in our daily lives, in communication, spiritual practices, and our relation to ourselves and our environment. In this workshop, participants will listen to audio recordings taken from an ongoing interview project conducted by Art on Purpose to collect individuals stories. The audio pieces explore observations, descriptions, and experiences of keeping and breaking silence and how it relates to voice and empowerment. Participants of any age will reflect on the audio, view and respond to photographic portraits, engage in discussion around the topic and create their own piece of artwork expressing the significance of silence in their own lives. The workshop itself acts as a space for the participants to listen, observe, and share their own experiences as a tool to create a piece of writing, a drawing, or their own recorded story.

11:30am – FREE – at Maryland Institute College of Art
American Friends Service Committee: Policing US

The workshop is intended to demonstrate the relationship between policing, prisons and political repression in U.S. communities of color. The workshop will provide a historical timeline that draws the connections between slavery and the advent of urban police forces as well as law enforcement initiatives such as the FBI’s infamous Counter-Intelligence Program and its impact on the Black Panther Party.

11:30am – FREE – at University of Baltimore
Ioana Stoica: Mythic Journeys – Engaging the Hero Within

Recognizing that social justice begins with personal transformation, this workshop will draw upon myth as the source and inspiration for that process. Myth reawakens our sensuous experience of the lived world and re-enchants our practical experiences in a way that provides us energy to initiate change in the world around us. The workshop will create a space where individuals can identify, discuss, and embody mythic elements of their own lives and ways in which myth can inspire action and change. The goal is for each participant to identify and embody an inner hero whose power for action – in whatever capacity and on whatever scale – is reinforced by a personal story and a symbol that can serve as a source of strength and meaning in daily life.

2:00pm – FREE – at Maryland Institute College of Art
Maggie Cleland: Empowering Adult Immigrant Communities through Theatre

In this dynamic workshop, participants will investigate the challenges and benefits of theatre-making across socioeconomic, educational, and ethnic boundaries. Maggie Cleland, the Workshop Facilitator, will share lessons learned from The ESL Living Collage Project, an interdisciplinary, collaborative theatre project about the diverse adult immigrant community of the Arlington Education and Employment Program’s Clarendon Education Center (REEP/CEC) in Arlington, Virginia. Through discussion as well as theatre games and activities, participants will explore ways of using theatre for community-building, language learning, and lifeskills development. This workshop is appropriate for older teens and adults of all abilities/needs. No acting experience is necessary.

2:00pm – FREE – at University of Baltimore
Quest: Poetry in Motion

Participants will gain a greater understanding of Physical theatre; the role physical theatre can take in enhancing literacy; and the role physical theatre can play in developing acting and communication skills. This workshop is an example of Quest’s commitment to use visual theatre as a strategy to enhance learning readiness and literacy.

4:30pm – FREE – at Maryland Institute College of Art
Wide Angle Youth Media: Flip It – Exploring & Creating Youth Media

Members of the Mentoring Video Project, who produce the “for youth, by youth” television show BeMore TV, will share their knowledge and teach other young people how to explore and produce media that gives them their own platform to speak out about issues that are important to them. In this workshop, we will open with a participatory exercise, in which we will analyze contemporary media and discuss how youth are represented. Then, we will showcase examples of youth-made videos using material from episodes of BeMore TV. After watching these videos, youth will learn and practice techniques for creating youth-focused media and discuss its importance in advocating for community issues. Though this workshop is intended for the youth, it can be open for people of all ages to join.

4:30pm – FREE – at University of Baltimore
Plunge Cabaret: Power Struggles and the Call for Creativity

We will work with one definition of power as “the ability to make choices,” and, through that lens, explore how the struggle to feel powerful is a central issue in most any social, cultural, or developmental issue facing us today. Using the venue of cabaret-style theater, we will create a learning environment using both performance and interactive workshops to discover how the subjects of power and choice impact our lives and fields of work, study, and art. Not inappropriate for any age/ability, but geared primarily towards artists, activists, and facilitators dealing with a variety of social , cultural, and developmental issues.

Sunday, October 7, 2007
1:30om – FREE – at Red Emma’s
Theatre Action Group: Embracing Discomfort

In this workshop, Theater Action Group (TAG) asks how this festival can serve us as artists and activists to identify, explore and address the contradictions in our work? TAG is open to working with festival participants and leaders to identify and respond to an emerging concern, theme or need that arises during the festival. TAG is also prepared to explore some of the questions that have been relevant to our community-based theater work: What are the tensions experienced as artists and activists? Can one be both? What are the tensions experienced as an insider and/or outsider working in a community as an artist? What is this thing we call “community” anyway? How do we build it? How do we build a community with differences? Why bring art to communities, or build communities through art?

Rather than propose “answers,” TAG will create a framework to explore these questions and potential tensions through physical and collective responsive action. TAG uses a wide range of structures and techniques such as Theater of the Oppressed, ensemble-based practices, improv, poetic movement structures, creative writing, playback, and image theater. This workshop is intended for community organizers, community-based artists, and festival participants. It welcomes people of all ages and needs who wish to explore these questions as well as one’s own creativity, to express one’s hopes and aspirations, and to give voice to one’s passions and stories. Our goal is to create spoken and image-based dialogue around these issues and give folks a direct experience in some of TAG’s evolving community-based performance practice. Theater Action Group (TAG) is a collective of citizen artists in Baltimore empowered with the language of theater to promote dialogue, to encourage social action and to build community via performance, workshop series, and community partnerships.

4:30pm – at Red Emma’s
Brave Soul Collective: Embracing Your Truth

Through the use of group discussion, BSC will conduct their “Brave Soul” gathering with a specific focus on the power (and/or) importance of embracing one’s truth in order to increase self esteem, dispel stereotypes, and reduce the risk factors generally associated with HIV infections. BSC has found that the ability to identify & demonstrate one’s truth openly is extremely beneficial not only to individuals, but to larger groups of people who may not otherwise take the time to understand, acknowledge and accept one another.

Locations:

Baltimore Theatre Project (www.theatreproject.org)
45 West Preston Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Creative Alliance at The Patterson (www.creativealliance.org)
3134 Eastern Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21224
(410) 276-1651

Goucher College (www.goucher.edu)
1021 Dulaney Valley Road, Baltimore, MD 21204

The University of Baltimore (www.ubalt.edu)
1420 N. Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

Maryland Institute College of Art (www.mica.edu)
1300 Mount Royal Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21217

Red Emma’s 2640 (www.redemmas.org/2640)
2640 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, MD 21202

For more information, please call: (540) 558-8744
Or visit the following websites:

http://www.clancyworks.org/creativeconvergence.html
http://www.communityperformance.org
http://www.dancenow.org/convergence.html

• activism , art , event , music , poetry , workshops
• Comments(0)

b. medusa 6 September 2007 2:41:04 am

i already posted this on my event calendar, but i just saw an article about their 3 year struggle on dissident voice:

The UWA, a human rights group founded by homeless day laborers in Baltimore, represents 800 low-wage workers who make up the pool of the 100-120 people who keep Camden Yards clean. Stadium workers — the people who clean out the bathroom stalls, sweep up the small mountains of cigarette butts and make the Camden Yards experience as pristine as promised — make poverty wages, just $7 an hour.

Work schedules for stadium workers can vary as well. Some workweeks can be well over forty hours; in other weeks, if the Orioles are on the road, the laborers don’t work at all. Take-home pay varies accordingly, depending on the number of home games in a week and how long the games last. The windfall earned from a game that goes into extra innings can make a real difference in the way a family eats in a given week.

Because they are doing “day labor,” members of the UWA who show up to work are sent home if they’re not needed. The wages are so low, and the job so “flexible,” that some workers live in homeless shelters. One worker was kicked out of public housing because her pay that month couldn’t match the monthly rent.

[...]

Also of note is that the UWA is largely composed of African-American and Latino workers. In an era when communities of color are often pitched against one another, their solidarity inspires hope.

excerpted from Cleaning Up After the Orioles by Dave Zirin.

read the full article. more info also @ http://unitedworkers.org/

IMPORTANT UPDATE!!! TOMORROW’S CONCERT NOW A VICTORY CELEBRATION!!!
visit the United Workers link above for more info. see also:
Stadium crews get raise|Maryland agency approves $11.30 ‘living wage’ next year
Hannah Cho, Baltimore Sun

Md. Workers Cancel Hunger Strike
Ben Nuckols, AP/Forbes.com

• activism , art , community , music , organizing , poetry , poverty , privilege
• Comments(1)

b. medusa 3 September 2007 9:51:32 am

(i’m totally serious about the required part, & this post may be updated).

• BFP does a guest post @ Kai’s place on Blogging & Race. this latest version of “where da poc’s at?” was bought about by the yearly kos thing in chicago early last month, but a thorough read of the entire post (& the comments too) is a must for all who’ve ever asked the question. or it’s companion – “how do we get poc’s involved in what we’re doing?” if you still “don’t get it”, after reading this post – start over & read it again. in fact, i suggest reading it twice anyway, just to be sure.

moving on to more generalized required reading:

• while you’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt to follow the links in this post either.
• and then get your butts over to Black Amazon’s & read the Carnival of Radical Action: Back to School Edition. read all of it & follow the links there too.

don’t tell me you don’t have time. make time. bookmark the pages & come back to them if necessary, but do read them thoroughly. this is continuing education, & its FREE. and to quote BA from the above post, “forget what you heard ignorance is not only NOT bliss, but DAMN ANNOYING to people who have to deal with you.” word.

• assumptions , cluelessness , discussion , information , networking , oppression , poc , white supremacy , woc
• Comments(0)

b. medusa 24 August 2007 12:00:27 am

Join workers from Camden Yards in the fight for human rights and freedom from poverty.

• 16 performers
• plenty of speakers and special guests

Concert is free and outdoors. Call 410-522-1052 to volunteer or visit the united workers web site for more info.

• activism , class , community , event , music , organizing , poetry
• Comments(0)

b. medusa 24 August 2007 12:00:13 am

After three years of broken promises, the cleaners at Camden Yards are fed up. That’s why we’ve set Sept 1st as the deadline for this publicly-owned stadium to end subpoverty wages.

On Sept. 3rd we will begin a living wages hunger strike at the stadium. It will continue until living wages are secured from the Maryland Stadium Authority.

More info at the unitedworkers.org web site

• activism , community , event , oppression , organizing , poverty
• Comments(0)