Alien Bodies: Race, Space, Sex in the African Dias

loquence: Tamara Natalie Madden Jamaican born painter &...

Wed, 22 May 2013 09:01:22 -0400

Tamara Natalie Madden

Jamaican born painter & mixed media artist

thesecretmichan: brentkeane: Nichelle Nichols at Wonder Con...

Tue, 21 May 2013 09:01:14 -0400

brentkeane:

Nichelle Nichols at Wonder Con 2013 (by hamish11)

The original, the best. Y’all better recognise.

SHE’S EVEN WEARING THE STARFLEET NECKLACE LEAVE ME I’M DONE

filmmemory: Favorite sample in a hip-hop song ever: Bernard...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:01:25 -0400

filmmemory:

Favorite sample in a hip-hop song ever: Bernard Hermann’s opening from ‘Psycho’ in Busta Rhymes’ ‘Gimme Some More’.

heckyeahplanetblerd: Lonnie Johnson, engineer and inventor of...

Sun, 19 May 2013 09:01:05 -0400

heckyeahplanetblerd:

Lonnie Johnson, engineer and inventor of the Super Soaker. #BLERD

rudolove: A member of Wassasso ballet trains on Room Island,...

Sat, 18 May 2013 09:01:10 -0400

rudolove:

A member of Wassasso ballet trains on Room Island, Conakry, Guinea in preparation for a performance scheduled for 9 April 2010 at Palais du Peuple, Conakry.

Credit: Sebastien Lénelle

African Filmmaking in the Digital Era: Bringing New Audiences to African Cinema

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:01:21 -0400

African Filmmaking in the Digital Era: Bringing New Audiences to African Cinema:

theafricanfilmfestival:

FESTIVAL PERKS: if you’re interested in the future of African cinema, this is probably a event you want to sign up for! This panel is organized by the African Film Festival and co-sponsored by the Columbia Maison Française, Institute of African Studies and School of the Arts Film Division.

thegoddamazon: soulbrotherv2: They Came Before Columbus: The...

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:01:01 -0400

thegoddamazon:

soulbrotherv2:

They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima

They Came Before Columbus reveals a compelling, dramatic, and superbly detailed documentation of the presence and legacy of Africans in ancient America. Examining navigation and shipbuilding; cultural analogies between Native Americans and Africans; the transportation of plants, animals, and textiles between the continents; and the diaries, journals, and oral accounts of the explorers themselves, Ivan Van Sertima builds a pyramid of evidence to support his claim of an African presence in the New World centuries before Columbus. Combining impressive scholarship with a novelist’s gift for storytelling, Van Sertima re-creates some of the most powerful scenes of human history: the launching of the great ships of Mali in 1310 (two hundred master boats and two hundred supply boats), the sea expedition of the Mandingo king in 1311, and many others. In They Came Before Columbus, we see clearly the unmistakable face and handprint of black Africans in pre-Columbian America, and their overwhelming impact on the civilizations they encountered.

Wow. I need to read this.

This would explain so much of why so many Natives and Africans can relate culturally…

Back to the AfroFuture: Help Kourtnie Fund Her Summer Internship!

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:49:23 -0400

Back to the AfroFuture: Help Kourtnie Fund Her Summer Internship!:

afrofuturistaffair:

wacklikethat:

I have received the great opportunity to intern with the AfroFuturist Affair in Philadelphia. I am in need of support in order to actualize this opportunity.

Short Summary

My Campaign - I have been granted the amazing opportunity to intern with the AfroFuturist Affair this up-coming summer. This grassroots organization utilizes an AfroFuturist framework of liberation as a mechanism for social justice. They aim to promote creative expression, education, and autonomy in partnership with local, underserved communities of color. As the summer intern my general responsibilities will surround but not be limited to communications and networking. As the first intern of the AfroFuturist Affair my position not only alleviates the work load of the Creative Director and Assistant Coordinator, but I will be offering necessary assistance for operating the organization within its fullest capacity.

I am kick-starting this campaign because I am in need of additional funding in order to sustain myself during this summer. While I am the recipient of Hampshire College’s Community Partnerships for Social Change (CPSC) Social Justice Scholars’ Award, the CPSC grant isn’t enough to cover the costs of living and transportation for a full time unpaid internship. Additionally finding a job in an unfamiliar city during the summer is not a guarantee.

About Me: I am a Nigerian and Narragansett (Native American) queer woman at Hampshire College. My concentration pursues an in-depth critical analysis of speculative fiction and media studies from the lenses of race, gender, class, and sexuality within American popular culture. In addition to my academic pursuits, community engagement activities have played an integral part in advancing my studies and interests. By way of volunteering, and internships have I been able to observe and participate in translating theory into practice.

I believe interning for the AfroFuturist Affair will greatly enrich and inform my senior thesis upon returning to Hampshire for the fall. It would be a shame if I couldn’t access this amazing opportunity due to financial circumstances.

Please consider contributing, and spreading the word. Anything helps!

We are incredibly pleased to announce that we will have our very first intern volunteering with us this summer! Kourtnie Aileru, pursuing a concentration in media studies and speculative fiction at Hampshire College, will be joining us in Philly by way of Rhode Island to assist us in managing media, administering the Futurist Fund Community Grant, and coordinating events. Kourtnie is running an Indiegogo campaign to help fund her living and medical expenses associated with her disability for the summer, as she gives her time freely to our community organization. Please help Kourtnie come to Philly to help us strengthen our organization!

authorsofcolor: The Spider King’s Daughter, Chibundu Onuzo...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:01:03 -0400

authorsofcolor:

The Spider King’s Daughter, Chibundu Onuzo (Nigeria)

CHIBUNDO ONUZO was born in Nigeria in 1991 and is the youngest of four children. She is currently studying History at Kings College, London. When not writing, Chibundu can be found playing the piano or singing.

‘The Spider King’s Daughter’ is a modern-day Romeo and Juliet set against the backdrop of a changing Lagos, a city torn between tradition and modernity, corruption and truth, love and family loyalty. Seventeen-year-old Abike Johnson is the favourite child of her wealthy father. She lives in a sprawling mansion in Lagos, protected by armed guards and ferried everywhere in a huge black jeep. But being her father’s favourite comes with uncomfortable duties, and she is often lonely behind the high walls of her house.

A world away from Abike’s mansion, in the city’s slums, lives a seventeen-year-old hawker struggling to make sense of the world. His family lost everything after his father’s death and now he runs after cars on the roadside selling ice cream to support his mother and sister.

When Abike buys ice cream from the hawker one day, they strike up an unlikely and tentative romance, defying the prejudices of Nigerian society. But as they grow closer, revelations from the past threaten their relationship and both Abike and the hawker must decide where their loyalties lie.

The Spide King’s Daughter is on the shortlist for the 2013 Commonwealth Book Prize.

fuckyeahethnicmen: damn, that form, those lines…

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:01:14 -0400

fuckyeahethnicmen:

damn, that form, those lines…

csmonitor: How Tough is too Tough? How rocketing school...

Mon, 13 May 2013 09:01:28 -0400

csmonitor:

How Tough is too Tough? How rocketing school suspensions nationwide may feed the school-to-prison pipeline – and even violate civil rights, a special report by Monitor education reporter Stacy Teicher Khadaroo.

Photos: (top)Mercedes Morgan, a senior at Ralph J. Bunche Academy, an Oakland, Calif., alternative school for students with disciplinary records, listens in as the school’s restorative justice coordinator, Eric Butler (r.), talks by phone with her mother. Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor

(bottom) Indicating he’s done answering a question, Oakland High School student Jesse Baldain III passes a ball to the instructor in his manhood-development class. Ann Hermes/The Christian Science Monitor

Graphics by Rich Clabaugh/The Christian Science Monitor

socalypso: Machel Montano HD - Floatfloat float float float...

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:01:18 -0400

socalypso:

Machel Montano HD - Float

float float float float float float HOVAAAAAHHH!!!

aliahatch: thegoddamazon: karnythia: signalfire90: cesaret: ...

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:01:08 -0400

aliahatch:

thegoddamazon:

karnythia:

signalfire90:

cesaret:

“May I ask why you felt little Tiffany deserved to die?”

I’m pretty sure this is why Tumblr gave us photosets.

To this day, I still have absolutely no idea if he actually did the right thing by shooting little Tiffany. His story was very convincing…

I totally bought that he was right.

If you think about it, it makes sense. MIB works to protect the Earth from alien threats but also doubles as an immigration agency for visiting extraterrestrials looking for asylum from their home planet or just to live somewhere incognito.

So most of the big, “scary” monsters in the film are actually harmless and even amicable toward human beings. It’s the ones who have deceptively innocent facades that tend to pose the biggest threat.

It’s part of why Zed decided to bring him into the fold. He thinks outside the box as far as perceiving danger as oppose to his competition who were military superstars, but they were bound by the rigid and stringent creative-suppressing rules of the military. They couldn’t think outside the box.

…I’ve always maintained that till this day.

^^^^ This.

He was right.

anarcho-queer: hagereseb: NYPD Profiling and Targeting LGBTQ...

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:01:27 -0400

anarcho-queer:

hagereseb:

NYPD Profiling and Targeting LGBTQ People of Color

Here is a vignette from March 2013: A 24-year-old gay man named Yhatzine Lafontain is leaving a restaurant late at night with a friend on Roosevelt Avenue and 95th Street in Queens. Both are dressed as women, Mr. Lafontain in a jacket, short dress and heels. Exchanging goodbyes outside, they are approached by a man who tells them they look good.

In Mr. Lafontain’s account, they chatted briefly to avoid seeming rude and the man departed. Within a few minutes, an undercover police officer approached Mr. Lafontain and his friend and arrested them, suspecting them of prostitution. “We were surprised,” Mr. Lafontain told me, “because we had never talked to anyone about sex or money.”

I met Mr. Lafontain last week in Jackson Heights, not far from where his arrest had taken place, at the offices of Make the Road New York, a community-organizing group that works primarily with Latino immigrants. It has tried, along with various anti-violence projects in the city, to call attention to the perverse specifics of stop-and-frisk policing — a practice currently on trial in federal court in Lower Manhattan — as it applies to gay, lesbian and transgender New Yorkers who are Black and Latino. Last fall, the group issued a report on policing in Jackson Heights, a neighborhood with a vibrant gay and transgender community and attendant club scene (and also a prostitution problem), and found in its survey of more than 300 residents that while 28 percent of straight respondents reported having been stopped by the police, 54 percent of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender respondents reported this kind of treatment.

(Read More)

By the way, I changed the title of the article because I felt that the original title (“Arrests by The Fashion Police”) created by the people at the New York Times was mocking the severity of the issues being discussed in the article.

This is a must read/reblog. Although prostitution is only a misdemeanor in NY, a conviction will result in the victim being kicked off food stamps and subsidized housing.

Related: NYPD Will Arrest You For Carrying Condoms

sonofbaldwin: A traditional Zulu same-sex wedding ceremony...

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:01:08 -0400

sonofbaldwin:

A traditional Zulu same-sex wedding ceremony takes place in South Africa.

“Being gay is as African as being black,” says Tshepo, one of the newlyweds.

(H/T April Davis)

diasporicroots: Diasporicroots: The Dahomey Amazons The Dahomey...

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:01:15 -0400

diasporicroots:

Diasporicroots:

The Dahomey Amazons

The Dahomey Amazons were a Fon all-female military regiment of the Kingdom of Dahomey (now known as Benin). They were named so by Western observers and historians due to their similarity to the legendary Amazons described by the Ancient Greeks.

King Houegbadja (who ruled from 1645 to 1685), the third King of Dahomey, is said to have originally started the group which would become the Amazons as a corps of elephant hunters called the gbeto. During the 18th century, the king had some of his wives trained as royal bodyguards.

Houegbadja’s son King Agadja (ruling from 1708 to 1732) developed the female bodyguard into a militia and successfully used them in Dahomey’s defeat of the neighbouring kingdom of Savi in 1727. European merchants recorded their presence, as well as similar female warriors amongst the Ashanti. For the next hundred years or so, they gained reputation as fearless warriors. Though they fought rarely, they usually acquitted themselves well in battle.

The group of female warriors was referred to as Mino, meaning “Our Mothers” in the Fon language by the male army of Dahomey.
From the time of King Ghezo (ruling from 1818 to 1858), Dahomey became increasingly militaristic. Ghezo placed great importance on the army and increased its budget and formalized its structures. The Mino were rigorously trained, given uniforms, and equipped with Danish guns (obtained via the slave trade). By this time the Mino consisted of between 4000 and 6000 women, about a third of the entire Dahomey army.

The Mino were recruited from among the ahosi (“king’s wives”) of which there were often hundreds. Some women in Fon society became ahosi voluntarily, while others were involuntarily enrolled if their husbands or fathers complained to the King about their behaviour. Membership among the Mino was supposed to hone any aggressive character traits for the purpose of war. During their membership they were not allowed to have children or be part of married life. Many of them were virgins. The regiment had a semi-sacred status, which was intertwined with the Fon belief in Vodun.

The Mino trained with intense physical exercise. Discipline was emphasised. In the latter period, they were armed with Winchester rifles, clubs and knives. Units were under female command. Captives who fell into the hands of the Amazons were often decapitated.

Conflict with France
European encroachment into west Africa gained pace during the latter half of the 19th century, and in 1890 King Behanzin started fighting French forces in the course of the First Franco-Dahomean War. According to Holmes, many of the French soldiers fighting in Dahomey hesitated before shooting or bayoneting the Mino. The resulting delay led to many of the French casualties. Ultimately, bolstered by the Foreign Legion, and armed with superior weaponry, including machine guns, the French inflicted casualties that were ten times worse on the Dahomey side. After several battles, the French prevailed. The Legionnaires later wrote about the “incredible courage and audacity” of the Amazons. The last surviving Amazon of Dahomey died in 1979.

WANTED: Future African models, doctors, artists, photographers, scholars, designers, students; etc

Tue, 07 May 2013 09:01:01 -0400

ourafrica:

We want to show case your talent & gifts on this site/blog for free.

Nothing like working together to help promote and better ourselves.

The site has over 8,000 readers around the world, you never know who is reading and how they can help you out.

Contact us via E-mail:

OABsubmit@gmail.com

sonofafieldnegro: realityunkempt: Our Imperfect Union - The...

Mon, 06 May 2013 09:01:12 -0400

sonofafieldnegro:

realityunkempt:

Our Imperfect Union - The First Memory (Cycle 1, Ep. 2)

Young Americans talk about their first vivid experiences encountering racism.

Made an error…my bad. Here’s the updated version.

haphsabeincharge: nomadfawzi: This is so beautiful. This video...

Sun, 05 May 2013 09:01:12 -0400

haphsabeincharge:

nomadfawzi:

This is so beautiful. This video is a short story about an incredible woman, named Dr. Hawa Abdi, talking about by her life, and of past & present situation in Somalia.
—Dr. Hawa Abdi, one of the Somalia’s first female obstetricians, has since 1991 provided free housing, water, and medical care to as many as 90,000 people displaced by the violent civil war. Some people have even liked her to Mother Theresa.

I think Dr. Hawa is an amazing human being. Where would we be without the women?

racialicious: black-culture: Young British model, Jourdan...

Sat, 04 May 2013 09:01:13 -0400

racialicious:

black-culture:

Young British model, Jourdan Dunn, Reveals Makeup Artist Refused To Touch Her Because She Was Black

Young British model, Jourdan Dunn is speaking out about the racism that still exist in her high profile profession. The 22 year old model recently revealed , in an interview with Net-A-Porter’s The Edit, that she too has faced racism like her colleague model, Chanel Iman. Like Iman, Dunn reveals how she has been turned away from castings because the agents filled their quotas with enough black girls. But her situations have been far worse than that. Jourdan also talks about a time when a white make-up artist would not touch her face because she was black.

But how does a model whose career has been ignited by campaigns with Yves Saint Laurent. Tommy Hilfiger and Burberry, hold it all together and wins in spite of the odds against her? Dunn says that it is through having strong mentors and people around her that encourage her to do her best. Those mentors and friends include W’s Edward Enniful and makeup artist Pat McGrath. Dunn says that her mother built up her self-esteem and was a great role model for her.

Dunn also sees the bigger picture in the obstacles that she faces within the modeling world. She does it all for her 3 year old son, who battles with sickle cell disease. Dunn is the first black model in ten years to walk in Prada’s fashion show. She has also graced the cover of Teen Vogue and won Model of the Year at the British Fashion Awards.

Dunn was discovered in Hammersmith Primark in 2006 and signed to Storm Model Management in London. In 2008, Steven Meisel selected Dunn to appear on the cover of the Vogue Italia issue. The issue held great significance because it was an issue devoted entirely to black models.Dunn is known for her signature walk and killer legs. Although black is beautiful, it is still hard for dark people of color to get ahead. Many dark people in the entertainment industry have to be ten times bolder or better in what they do, and even coming out and speaking against the industry can get you blacklisted. While this type of behavior in the industry may be nothing new, in this day and age it is worth noting that it is still a hindrance and an issue that needs to continually be addressed in order to effect change.

“Jourdan also talks about a time when a white make-up artist would not touch her face because she was black.”

Because. She. Was. Black.

No further comment.