Tenants of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, the building where hip-hop was born, announced plans today to buy the 100-apartment building in an attempt to keep it from going private. The current owner is looking to shake it loose for big bucks. The building is an area of the Bronx where gentrification is in full swing; a sale to private interests could find the tenants paying higher rents or having to dial up U-Haul.

To prevent the shift in ownership, they’ll have to come up with $14 million. Of course there is no way residents of an affordable-housing complex (ok.. the projects) have that kind of money. Their best bet is to gather funds from a combo pack of official and philanthropic sources. The city’s Urban Homesteading Assistance Board is helping to make the necessary connections to ink the deal. Residents will then be able to buy their apartments as co-ops for a couple thousand a-piece.

Kool Herc, the official Godfather of Hip-Hop told AM NY (where this was scooped), “It’s like Graceland or the Grand Ole Opry, it’s the birthplace, where it all started from. It’s a piece of the American dream and we just want to preserve it.”

NY Sen. Charles Schumer met with residents of the building this morning, where he echoed the sentiment, if not on historical terms, at least in economics, “1520 Sedgwick is in danger of losing its affordable status, as its owner prepares to sell the building to wealthy speculators whose only hope of profiting on the building hinges on hiking the rent rolls,” Schumer said. “That is why it is essential that the owner negotiate a reasonable, affordable deal with the tenants and their representatives to preserve affordability in this special place for the long haul.”

——–

With 1520 Sedgwick being the birthplace of hip-hop, doesn’t this sound like something the big boys of the music - Jay-Z, Diddy, Dr. Dre, Russell Simmons, etc. etc. etc - could pool their money together, a mil from this guy, a mil from the other, so they can buy it and insure this symbolic landmark remains a place that people can call home?

That’s all some of the tenants are concerned about.

They consider it a safe and quiet place to live.

Annie Jenkins, 70, who raised four children there, told AM NY, “It’s been my home for 36 years and I don’t want to leave it. I’m an older woman. It’s nice to have some history here, but I just always look at it as my home.”

Clarification: That’s not Annie J. in the picture up top, that’s Mary Fountain. She felt the same way, but Annie’s quote was better.

(c/o whudat.com)

for the record, i did not see this film. it may be phenomenally produced, acted and born out of love and respect. it may be powerfully written and in fact, i don’t doubt the powerful scenes that are sure to leap off the screen. the fact of the matter is, how often is history distorted to portray a story intended to make the original history more “effective”…. more “powerful”…. more “accessible and easy to relate to”…. more “true to life”?

WRITTEN BY GLOBE NEWSPAPERS’ ELEANOR BOSWELL-RAINE

I am the daughter of Hamilton Boswell, who was a member of the Wiley College debating team of 1935. I regret that my father’s history was twisted and that writers somehow didn’t think that the truth was enough.

He was so proud to have contributed his memories to the making of what he thought would be a representative account of his beloved alma maters, Wiley and the University of Southern California, his mentor Melvin Tolson, his debating team and the team’s triumph.

Through the years I’ve listened to people say that early American historians distorted the history of blacks. It was a tactic that contributed to the undermining of the accomplishments of blacks; it haunts us to this day.

In an interview with film critic Kam Williams after the opening of the film, Denzel Washington, when asked why he wanted to bring the story of “The Great Debaters” to the silver screen, said: “It’s history, that’s why I wanted to capture it. I said, ‘We can’t miss this.’ There’s a lot there, and we need to pass that on. These things need to be shared and celebrated.”

While the film, “The Great Debaters,” produced by Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo production company and actor/director Denzel Washington, successfully projects episodes of cruelty and blatant hatred against blacks by the white South of 1935, it holds up a shining example of a tiny black Texas college that produced one of the finest college debating teams of the time.

So the question is, why did its writers distort the Wiley College debating team’s history?

Here’s what is true:

Wiley College, in Marshall, Texas, is a real black college. Melvin Tolson was a brilliant professor who coached an outstanding debating team that competed and won against other black and white colleges.

James Farmer, a famous civil rights activist, was a junior member of the Wiley debating team. The year was 1935. Whites were lynching black people in the South. Fathers and mothers were humiliated in front of their children.

While on the road, Tolson and his debaters were traveling in a car when they encountered a crowd of white men, women and children who had lynched and mutilated a black man.

The Wiley debating team did compete and win a championship against a highly rated and revered university.

Professor Tolson did have leftist leanings, and one of the debater’s parents was concerned about how it would affect his son’s future. These are among the real facts.

Here’s what is untrue:

Perhaps one of the most damning distortions was the fictitious venue: the Wiley debating team did not debate at Harvard, it debated at the University of Southern California.

The team traveled west, not north, to debate a university not used to debating with black schools and not used to losing.

Three of the four debaters were fictional. The film’s writers took half of the names of authentic debaters and changed their last names. Hamilton Boswell became “Hamilton Burgess,” complete with the use of Boswell’s nickname, “Ham.” Henry Heights became “Henry Lowe.” There was no woman on the team in 1935.

In his 90s, Boswell shared with the researchers of the film his memories of the times – of Tolson and Wiley and of his personal experiences on the road with the debating team. Boswell died in May 2007 thinking that the Wiley debating team’s story would be told, and without knowledge that his name would be fictionalized.

The film sprinkled in facts that he provided. The most dramatic was the lynching scene that he, Tolson, and Farmer witnessed. Boswell’s testimony about the event was carried by The New York Times online edition as an MP3. His voice boomed out as he discussed the impact on the group of witnessing the horrible lynching.

Was it lack of information that created fictitious people, quoting Willie Lynch who, by the way, was unknown to them, a mere confusion of facts and historic context, or was it creative license taken to the extreme that caused a black producer and a black director and actor to recreate a profoundly notable moment in a small black college’s history?

Was it necessary to attribute real-life people’s accomplishments to fictitious characters at the end of the movie?

It was Hamilton Boswell, a real living person, who went to USC and became an important minister, not Hamilton Burgess. Was Hamilton Boswell not worthy of this recognition in his own right? Was Henry Heights not worthy of his accomplishments?

How long will we as blacks think that it’s all right to take our accomplishments as a basis for rewriting our true history? If Denzel Washington’s writers wanted to write about a fictitious team, why include a person like Tolson, who was not a fake, and distort him? Why take a small black college’s history and moment of triumph only to fake it up? Why insult real debaters by faking their last names when one of them contributed to some of the authenticity of the film and was not even mentioned as an advisor to the film?

When will we treasure our true history instead of trying to improve on it? Once more we are saying to black people, “Your history is just not good enough!”

Copyright © New America Media
Eleanor Boswell-Raine, Jan 05, 2008

There’s a kind of joy and an electric energy that comes from poetry, even when it’s hard-hitting and the subject matter oft-times covered in darkness. Its modern incarnation, the art of “spoken word”, is a fusion of poetry and performance that draws on rhythms of the street and the culture of urban America. Some call it a “revival” of the Beat Era of the ’50s, with poetry and spoken word making a comeback in nightclubs and coffeehouses of America’s big cities. This organic, raw verse continues its evolution, in the documentary feature film, “SP!T”.

www.spitthemovie.com

joy.

explicit language…. real talk…. viewer discretion is advised.

joy.

I have no words and you’ll soon see why.

December 10, 2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the day Otis redding passed away. His birthday was last month on September 9th. He would have been 66. Instead, the legendary singer’s life was cut short by a tragic plane crash on Dec 10th 1967- he was only 26 years old. 40 years later, his music lives on, his legacy will never be forgotten and his life will continue to be celebrated for generations to come.

Otis Redding was a singer of commanding stature that to this day embodies the essence of soul music. Though his career was relatively brief, cut short by a tragic plane crash, Otis Redding left behind a legacy of recordings made during the four-year period from his first sessions for Stax/Volt Records in 1963 until his death in 1967. As a songwriter, Redding is responsible for such hits as “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long,” “Respect,” “Pain in my Heart,” “Satisfaction,” and “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” .

In addition to being an accomplished songwriter, Otis Redding was also a talented recording artist, performer, businessman, and music publisher. As president of his own publishing firm, Redwal Music Co., Inc., he was very active in the company’s operation and was directly responsible for the company’s leadership in the music publishing field. To date, the company has copyrighted over 200 commercially successful songs and published many songs which have sold in excess of one million copies each.

Otis Redding exemplified to many listeners the power of Southern “deep soul” — hoarse, gritty vocals, brassy arrangements, and an emotional way with both party tunes and aching ballads. One of his biggest hits was a duet with fellow Stax star Carla Thomas- “Tramp,” in 1967. That was the same year he began to show signs of making major inroads into the white audience, particularly with a well-received performance at the Monterey Pop Festival (also issued on record). The idea that music could be a universal force, bringing together different races and cultures, was central to Otis’ personal philosophy and reflected in his everyday life. At a time when it may not have been considered politically correct, Redding had a white manager, Phil Walden, and a racially mixed band. While it was not Redding’s prime motivation, he was seen as a role model who made unprecedented moves for a black music artist in the 1960s. “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” which was recorded only a few days before his tragic death, represented a significant leap as far as examination of more intensely personal emotions. Also highlighted by crisp Cropper guitar leads and dignified horns, it rose to the top of the pop charts in early 1968.

What Redding might have achieved, or what directions he might have explored, are among the countless tantalizing “what if” questions in rock & roll history. For what he accomplished in his life and for what we remember today, the world will continue to celebrate the wonderful life and beautiful music of this truly brilliant artist.

 Cigarettes and Coffee [4:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

A new front on the content wars may be opening when Congress holds its first hearing specifically into media “stereotypes and degradation” of women — particularly African- American women — later this month. Hearing, not yet officially announced and tentatively skedded for Sept. 25, will focus primarily on hip-hop lyrics and videos, which critics have frequently derided for explicit misogyny aimed largely at black women. But other media will likely come under scrutiny, too. “I want to engage not just the music industry but the entertainment industry at large to be part of a solution,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, which will hold the hearing.

Just as his colleagues on other committees have summoned TV execs to be grilled on sexual or violent content, Rush wants to hear from the leaders of companies purveying rap music. The intent is to examine commercial practices behind the music’s most controversial content. “I want to talk to executives at these conglomerates who’ve never taken a public position on what they produce,” Rush said. “But it’s been surprisingly very difficult to get them to commit to appearing.” Rush had planned the hearing twice before and had to postpone both times to accommodate execs’ schedules. “But after a series of long conversations and other communications, they know this hearing is going to go forward, and they will be coming — reluctantly, if I might add.” Witnesses include toppers Philippe Dauman of Viacom, Doug Morris of Universal Music Group and Edgar Bronfman Jr. of Warner Music Group. A music industry exec said the delay was more an issue of getting the right people to appear. “Not everyone agrees that the top people are the same as the right people,” the exec said, noting that decisions to sign particular artists or distribute their CDs are often made at lower levels. Another insider said scheduling conflicts had been the only reason for the delay.

So far, only one artist has committed to appearing — Master P, who began his career as a gangsta rapper but has since focused on positive messages and images in his music. The witness list is still being developed, according to Rush’s spokesman. A congressional aide said witness lists are never finalized and released before the hearing itself is announced. Expect this hearing to be formally announced one week prior to the confirmed date, per standard procedure, the aide added.

Currently titled “From Imus to Industry: The Business of Stereotypes and Degradation,” the hearing is intended to address “what is certainly a timely issue and one that won’t go away,” Rush said. “I want to look at not only the problem caused by misogynistic content in some hip-hop music but also some of the pain that emanates from this degradation,” he continued. Rush plans on having “representatives from African American women’s groups” appear before the hearing. Rush stressed that this is “not an anti-artist hearing, or antimusic or antiyouth hearing.” He said he’s hoping for voluntary — not regulatory — solutions. “I respect the First Amendment, but rights without responsibility is anarchy, and that’s much of what we have now. It’s time for responsible people to stand up and accept responsibility.”

Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr., president of the Hip Hop Caucus, was tackled to the ground by six capitol police officers yesterday, when he was stopped from entering the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, where General Petraeus gave testimony today to a joint hearing for the House Arms Services Committee and Foreign Relations Committee on the war in Iraq. After waiting in line throughout the morning for the hearing that was scheduled to start at 12:30pm, Rev. Yearwood was stopped from entering the room, while others behind him were allowed to enter. He told the officers who were blocking his ability to enter the room, that he was waiting in line with everyone else and had the right to enter as well.

When they threatened him with arrest and tried to lead him away, he pulled away and responded with “I will not be arrested today.” According to witnesses, six capitol police officers, without warning, “football tackled” him. He was carried off in a wheel chair by DC Fire and Emergency to George Washington Hospital.

Rev. Yearwood said, as he was being released from the hospital to be taken to central booking, “The officers decided I was not going to get in Gen. Petraeus’ hearing when they saw my button, which says ‘I LOVE THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ.’”

Rev. Yearwood is expected to be charged with Assaulting a Police Officer this afternoon.

Stay tuned for more on how this case plays out.

From thesmokinggun.com–
A crude “ghetto handbook” distributed to police patrolling Houston’s public schools has resulted in the suspension of one officer. The eight-page booklet–a copy of which you’ll find at the link provided below–was handed out in May by an officer with the city’s Independent School District, but did not come to the attention of school brass until recently, when a discrimination complaint was lodged. The booklet, which was given to about 20 cops, is subtitled “Wucha dun did now?,” and purports to help the reader “learn to speak ebonics as if you just came out of the hood…because you could find yourself with a problem one day and ebonics could save your life.” The booklet offers definitions for street slang like “hoodrat” (”scummy girl”) and “foty” (a 40-ounce bottle of beer) and concludes with a “poem” incorporating these terms. It also includes a copyright notation that the booklet is a “first edition, second soon to follow.” That now appears to be the wishful thinking of a novice author.

READ THE “GHETTO HANDBOOK” HERE

IS IT JUST FOR A 16 YEAR OLD KID TO GO TO JAIL FOR 22 YEARS FOR A FIST FIGHT IN HIGHSCHOOL!!!!!!

WITH THE ELECTION COMING NEXT YEAR IN ‘08, LETS TAKE IT BACK BEFORE WE LOOK FORWARD

 Malcolm X- Ballot or the Bullet [21:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

by: Binyavanga Wainaina

some tips: sunsets and starvation are good

Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’ ‘Big’, ‘Sky’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’. Note that ‘People means Africans who are not black, while ‘The People’ means black Africans

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.

Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African’s cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it—because you care.

Taboo subjects: ordinary domestic scenes, love between Africans (unless a death is involved), references to African writers or intellectuals, mention of school-going children who are not suffering from yaws or Ebola fever or female genital mutilation.

Throughout the book, adopt a sotto voice, in conspiracy with the reader, and a sad I-expected-so-much tone. Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love with the place and can’t live without her. Africa is the only continent you can love—take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed.

Your African characters may include naked warriors, loyal servants, diviners and seers, ancient wise men living in hermitic splendour. Or corrupt politicians, inept polygamous travel-guides, and prostitutes you have slept with. The Loyal Servant always behaves like a seven-year-old and needs a firm hand; he is scared of snakes, good with children, and always involving you in his complex domestic dramas. The Ancient Wise Man always comes from a noble tribe (not the money-grubbing tribes like the Gikuyu, the Igbo or the Shona). He has rheumy eyes and is close to the Earth. The Modern African is a fat man who steals and works in the visa office, refusing to give work permits to qualified Westerners who really care about Africa. He is an enemy of development, always using his government job to make it difficult for pragmatic and good-hearted expats to set up NGOs or Legal Conservation Areas. Or he is an Oxford-educated intellectual turned serial-killing politician in a Savile Row suit. He is a cannibal who likes Cristal champagne, and his mother is a rich witch-doctor who really runs the country.

Among your characters you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West. Her children have flies on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty. She must look utterly helpless. She can have no past, no history; such diversions ruin the dramatic moment. Moans are good. She must never say anything about herself in the dialogue except to speak of her (unspeakable) suffering. Also be sure to include a warm and motherly woman who has a rolling laugh and who is concerned for your well-being. Just call her Mama. Her children are all delinquent. These characters should buzz around your main hero, making him look good. Your hero can teach them, bathe them, feed them; he carries lots of babies and has seen Death. Your hero is you (if reportage), or a beautiful, tragic international celebrity/aristocrat who now cares for animals (if fiction).

Bad Western characters may include children of Tory cabinet ministers, Afrikaners, employees of the World Bank. When talking about exploitation by foreigners mention the Chinese and Indian traders. Blame the West for Africa’s situation. But do not be too specific.

Broad brushstrokes throughout are good. Avoid having the African characters laugh, or struggle to educate their kids, or just make do in mundane circumstances. Have them illuminate something about Europe or America in Africa. African characters should be colourful, exotic, larger than life—but empty inside, with no dialogue, no conflicts or resolutions in their stories, no depth or quirks to confuse the cause.

Describe, in detail, naked breasts (young, old, conservative, recently raped, big, small) or mutilated genitals, or enhanced genitals. Or any kind of genitals. And dead bodies. Or, better, naked dead bodies. And especially rotting naked dead bodies. Remember, any work you submit in which people look filthy and miserable will be referred to as the ‘real Africa’, and you want that on your dust jacket. Do not feel queasy about this: you are trying to help them to get aid from the West. The biggest taboo in writing about Africa is to describe or show dead or suffering white people.

Animals, on the other hand, must be treated as well rounded, complex characters. They speak (or grunt while tossing their manes proudly) and have names, ambitions and desires. They also have family values: see how lions teach their children? Elephants are caring, and are good feminists or dignified patriarchs. So are gorillas. Never, ever say anything negative about an elephant or a gorilla. Elephants may attack people’s property, destroy their crops, and even kill them. Always take the side of the elephant. Big cats have public-school accents. Hyenas are fair game and have vaguely Middle Eastern accents. Any short Africans who live in the jungle or desert may be portrayed with good humour (unless they are in conflict with an elephant or chimpanzee or gorilla, in which case they are pure evil).

After celebrity activists and aid workers, conservationists are Africa’s most important people. Do not offend them. You need them to invite you to their 30,000-acre game ranch or ‘conservation area’, and this is the only way you will get to interview the celebrity activist. Often a book cover with a heroic-looking conservationist on it works magic for sales. Anybody white, tanned and wearing khaki who once had a pet antelope or a farm is a conservationist, one who is preserving Africa’s rich heritage. When interviewing him or her, do not ask how much funding they have; do not ask how much money they make off their game. Never ask how much they pay their employees.

Readers will be put off if you don’t mention the light in Africa. And sunsets, the African sunset is a must. It is always big and red. There is always a big sky. Wide empty spaces and game are critical—Africa is the Land of Wide Empty Spaces. When writing about the plight of flora and fauna, make sure you mention that Africa is overpopulated. When your main character is in a desert or jungle living with indigenous peoples (anybody short) it is okay to mention that Africa has been severely depopulated by Aids and War (use caps).

You’ll also need a nightclub called Tropicana, where mercenaries, evil nouveau riche Africans and prostitutes and guerrillas and expats hang out.

Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances. Because you care.

Apparently many people are having trouble registering or logging into this blog… We’d hate for you to miss out on some good discussions so if this is you, holla at me and I’ll try to help you out.

joyplaza@gmail.com

peace.
joy.