[Photo: Ashley M. Jones via Facebook. Credit: Amarr Croskey]
Birmingham nativeAshley M. Jones was recently named Poet Laureate of Alabama (2022-2026), the youngest and first Black person to hold the position created 91 years ago.
“Hopefully, as poet laureate, I can shine some light on the work that is being done that is positive and just remind people that the south is still part of the U.S.,” Jones said.
Jones guest edited Poetry magazine earlier this year after the magazine and its publisher were challenged to do more to support poets from marginalized populations and support Black Lives Matter protests. Jones’ 2021 collectionReparations Now! examines history through verse, such as the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four little girls, as well as Jones’ personal experiences with racism.
Jones earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Florida International University, according to jbhe.com. She currently teaches at Converse Collegein Spartanburg, South Carolina, as well as the Alabama School of Fine Arts.
Jones also co-directs the PEN American chapter in Birmingham, Alabama, and runs a nonprofit organization called the Magic City Poetry Festival, which is having an online event on November 13.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation is formally expanding a $3 million relief fund it launched earlier this month to help people struggling financially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Associated Press.
The foundation, which grew out of the creation of the Black Lives Matter movement nearly eight years ago, plans to give 3,000 microgrants of $1,000 each to people who it believes need it most.
The BLM foundation has already begun asking recipients to apply for the Survival Fund grantsas it builds out its philanthropic arm. Those approved can have the money is deposited directly into their bank accounts or made available on prepaid debit cards, the foundation said — no strings attached.
As of Thursday afternoon, the foundation reported the response had been overwhelming and it was no longer accepting applications for the initial round of the fund.
Patrisse Cullors, the foundation’s executive director, said that so far the Survival Fund’s first recipients have included the families of people killed by police or who died while incarcerated, grassroots community organizers, people who identify as transgender, single parents and formerly incarcerated individuals.
“This came from a collective conversation with BLM leadership that Black folks are being hurt the most financially during the pandemic,” Cullors said.“I believe that when you have resources, to hoard them is a disservice to the people who deserve them.”
During that time, mutual aid and direct assistance programs like BLM’s Survival Fund have increased in popularity. According to the nonprofit Town Hall Project, which created the Mutual Aid Hub to track various collective efforts last March, the number of mutual aid groups in the U.S. grew from 50 to more than 800 in 48 states by last May.
Black mutual aid efforts date back to antebellum times, when enslaved Americans pooled their money to buy each other’s freedom from bondage. In the 1960s, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense created programs in several stated where members provided groceries and breakfasts to the elderly and schoolchildren, as well as health care screenings through community clinics.
Cullors said the Survival Fund is a tribute to that legacy.
Petter Eide, a member of Norway’s parliament, nominated Black Lives Matter for a Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of the movement’s continuous work towards manifesting racial justice in the U.S. and across the globe.
“To carry forward a movement of racial justice and to spread that to other countries is very, very important. Black Lives Matter is the strongest force today doing this, not only in the U.S. but also in Europe and in Asia,” Eide told USA TODAY.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 in recognition for his work and mission of non-violent protest during the Civil Rights Movement.
Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela won in 1960 and 1993, respectively, for their campaigns against racial discrimination and apartheid in South Africa.
Additionally, the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation has won Sweden’s Olof Palme human rights prize for 2020, for promoting “peaceful civil disobedience against police brutality and racial violence” according to the prize’s organizers.
Patrice Cullors, one of the original founders of Black Lives Matter, will accept the $100,000 on behalf of BLM during an online ceremony today.
In today’s “Power Shot,” TEDx speaker,Power Lab performance coach, and GBN’s “This Way Forward” contributor Dena Crowder breaks down how white supremacy is the ideology behind the biggest threat to democracy in the United States.
Crowder clearly and concisely explains how Black people have been and continue to be essential to preserving and re-defining democracy, why Black voices must be listened to, and gives deeper context for why #BlackLivesMatter. Check it out:
More than 50 years after his death, I can only wonder what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would think of the upheaval of 2020; of the push back on the sentiment that “Black Lives Matter,” and a white supremacist insurgency in our nation’s capital.
Would-be nazis and neo-confederates beating and murdering police on their way into storming the people’s house. We have come far as a nation, and yet what Brotha Ta-Nehisi Coates calls the “beautiful struggle” continues unabated.
As well all celebrate, serve, and/or reflect on this special of American holidays, here’s a collection of music for your mind, heart, and soul. (And in some cases, dat booty too.)
Many are classics that inspired the Freedom Riders during the civil rights movement, and others were written in the wake of George Floyd‘s murder and the protests that followed.
For my money 2020 was a good year for films by and Black people, as well as the sounds from them. One Night In Miami, Sylvie’s Love, Soul, and the Small Axe series to name but a few. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods both featured posthumous performances by the great Chadwick Boseman.
Here’s more than 17 hours of music to help steel you for the days, weeks, and months 2021 is certain to bring.
I plan to be back with more next week, y’all. Stay safe, sane, and kind.
Nurse and activist Cori Bush, garnered a commanding 84 percent of the vote in Missouri’s 1st District to become the state’s first Black woman representative in the United States Congress.
“This is definitely a night to remember,” Bush told supporters during her acceptance speech.“This has been a historic day from the beginning to the end.”
Bush had the backing of the Justice Democrats — who helped propel Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to her first upset victory over 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley.
In her August Democratic primary, Bush had her own upset victory, defeating longtime incumbent, Missouri Rep. William Lacy Clay.
Bush got involved with the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014, when Michael Brown, an unarmed Black teenager, was shot and killed by a white police officer in Ferguson.
She joined the protests that erupted in the wake of the shooting and soon began leading the protests in her Missouri district.
Bush has remained engaged in protest work ever since, getting heavily involved in the recent protests surrounding the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
To read more:https://www.vox.com/2020/11/4/21538719/cori-bush-ritchie-torres-jamaal-bowman-election-results
Teyana Taylor dropped a stunning and powerful music video today for “Still” from her third LP, THE ALBUM, which came out on Juneteenth of this year via G.O.O.D. Music/Def Jam Recordings.
The video, produced by Teyana’s all-female led production company “The Aunties” and directed by Taylor under her pseudonym Spike Tey, highlights footage of important moments in America’s ongoing fight for social justice, with Teyana blending herself into the iconic imagery of Malcolm X (see photo above), Huey P. Newton and Breonna Taylor by donning their clothes and assuming their poses.
The video also includes words and footage of Malcolm X, footage of Martin Luther King Jr.,John Lewis, Angela Davis, the Black Panthers, Civil Rights Movement protesters, Black Lives Matter protesters and several victims of hate crimes and police brutality including Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice and George Floyd, to name a few. It is, in a word, gripping. Watch below:
Michael Jordan and the Jordan Brand are donating $2.5 million toward fighting Black voter suppression as part of a larger 10-year, $100 million effort that Jordan and Jordan Brand announced on June 5 to “impact the fight against systemic racism.”
According to Nike News, Jordan and Jordan Brand chose partners to fight Black voter suppression based on their ability to take actions to create immediate and direct.
Black Voters Matter (Capacity Building Institute) has been successful in supporting policies that expand access to the ballot, including the restoration of voting rights to people who have been incarcerated, and the development of network of grassroots organizations that activate Black voters. Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand will support Black Voters Matter in its efforts to register and turn out voters in the upcoming elections. For more information, visit bvmcapacitybuilding.org.
Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted Peoples and their Families Movement (FICPFM) FICPFM supports formerly incarcerated individuals who are returning to society, to promote civic engagement, help them meet voter registration eligibility requirements and shift the dominant narrative on who convicted people and their loved ones are. Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand will support FICPFM to help restore the rights of disenfranchised voters. For more information, visit ficpfm.org.
LDF, which was founded by Thurgood Marshall before he became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, is the nation’s premier civil rights law organization. It employs litigation, advocacy and public education to advance its mission to achieve racial justice, equality and an inclusive society. Over the past 80 years, LDF has fought for structural changes to expand democracy and eliminate disparities. Through its many transformative cases, such as Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned the “separate but equal” doctrine that underpinned legal segregation, LDF has changed the very fabric of American democracy. Today, LDF fights to expand and protect civil rights so that our nation’s promise of racial equity and justice can become a reality for all Americans. For more information, visit naacpldf.org.
Not even death can stop John Lewis from giving his heart and soul to the fight for equality and justice for all.
Civil Rights titan and Congressmember Lewis wrote an essay for the New York Times entitled “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” meant to be published today, the day of his funeral.
As Lewis’s body is being laid to rest at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, the spirited words in his essay urge us all to “answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.”
Lewis also writes about what and who ignited his journey into protest against injustice:
Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.
Lewis also shares the moment he first encountered the teachings and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how it affected him:
Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.
After two public hearings, the Boston Art Commission voted to remove the Emancipation Group, a statue installed in 1879 in Boston’s Park Square, according to a statement announcing the removal.
The statue is a replica of one in Washington DC, and has been controversial since its installation for the depiction of the freed slave.
The statue features Archer Alexander, a Black man who “assisted the Union Army, escaped slavery, and was recaptured under the Fugitive Slave Act,” the statement says.
The vote follows a nationwide movement calling for the removal of monuments that celebrate the Confederacy or viewed as racist.
“For generations, Bostonians have called for its removal due to its racist depiction of a Black person. Many also feel it implies that one person ended slavery and misrepresents the complexity of United States history,” the statement said.
The statue has always been criticized, but a petition started in early June renewed interest in its removal.
Tory Bullock, a Boston area actor and activist, launched the petition with the intention of getting 1,000 signatures, but quickly surpassed that goal. Currently, the petition has over 12,000 signatures.
Bullock was inspired by the social and cultural moment that Black Lives Matter protests created and felt this was a good time to reintroduce the issue.
