Black Eurovision Song Contest Part 1: Giovanca (The Netherlands)

Black Eurovision Song Contest Part 1. The Afro-Dutch singer Giovanca Ostiana - Amsterdam based with Dutch Antillean roots - is the revelation of 2008. Feel-good music with influences from pop, soul, jazz, Motown and hip hop
Read: Giovanca's official website

Blogging from the suburbs of France

After and during the French riots in 2005, blogging became a way for the French youth to tell their stories. Now that the unrest has gone, a few blogs still tell the stories of living in the suburbs. One of those blogs is Bondy Blog. It gives an inside look in the suburban neighbourhoods of France, where Obama is a source of inspiration for young 'Magrebs' and Afro-Europeans.
Read: Bondy Blog (translated)

Barack Obama could not become British prime minister

Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, claims Barack Obama could not become prime minister in Britain because of "institutional racism" in the British political system.
Mr Phillips said that while there were just 15 ethnic-minority MPs in the House of Commons, it nonetheless demonstrates that "the problem is not the electorate, the problem is the machine."

Watch video: Barack Obama could not become British prime minister
Read: Barack Obama could not become British prime minister

Do black people collect art?

New ideas from the Netherlands. My First Art Collection is a training program for people who want to learn how to collect art. During the first training My first Art Collection: 20 participants get the chance to experience the art world in a personal way from the inside. In 13 meetings the participants are prepared to be a collector of contemporary art! über blick
From january - june 2009/ Amsterdam and Rotterdam / 375 euro

French blacks expect change after Obama victory

French blacks expect change after Obama victory. Now that Obama will be the first black president, and African-Americans are at the dawn of a new era, the contrast with blacks in France becomes painfully clear. Youssoupha, a black rapper with a master’s degree from the Sorbonne, hit like many well-educated blacks, a brick wall. “I found myself working in fast-food places with people who had the equivalent of a 15-year-old’s level of education,” he recalled. In a survey carried out by TNS-Sofres for CRAN, the French NAACP, in 2007, more than two out of three French blacks said they had been the victims of racial discrimination in their country. And more than 80 per cent said that the situation was not improving.
Read:
For Blacks in France, Obama’s Rise Is Reason to Rejoice, and to Hope

French blacks hail Obama victory - and expect change

Finally a black guy as president!!

Barack Obama, a black man as the president of United States of America. This is absolutely a great moment. Not only for the African-American community but for the entire black community. I hoped it wouldn’t be race thing, but for black folks it is. Colin Powel became emotional during an interview and Condoleeza Rice spoke at a press conference, as an African-American, about the factor 'race' in America'. At the end there was no doubt about it, this is not a Republican thing or a Democratic thing, it is a black thing.

Where's the Afro-European Obama?

Tomorrow will we know if Obama will be the first black president of the US. But what about Europe?

Many black Europeans say victory for Barack Obama in the U.S. election might set an example that could help remedy their under-representation in European politics. But they emphasize that the U.S. Democrat inspires a massive following in Europe through his ideas and charisma, not just because of his color.
Read: Black Europeans pin political hopes on Obama

Will a black president change America?

Down in Europe we love Obama and hope for change. But in the US black critics have a different opion. Despite Barack Obama's message of change and hope, fears persist in the black community about what his election as president could mean for the legacy of racism in America. Read In black America, few dare hope for racial change

German Hip Hop - Brothers Keepers

Brothers Keepers is a German-based transnational anti-racism project, bringing together hip hop, reggae and soul musicians, headed primarily by Afro-Germans. The idea for the project took root in the 1990s, and when a German of Mozambiquan origin, named Alberto Adriano, was brutally killed by neo-Nazis in Dessau (East Germany) in 2000, a group of musicians decided to organize and fight back.

British Urban Species with French Mc Solaar

Old Skool Hip Hop from the British group Urban Species, a trio that played a reggae/acid jazz/soul/hip-hop crossoverelectronic. They cooperated with artists including Terry Callier, Imogen Heap, MC Solaar and Guru (wikipedia). The song in video is Listen (1994). Very European Hip Hop.

Dutch author and Make up Artist Clarck Accord

Dutch author and Make up Artist Clarck Accord (1961) made his debut with the novel 'De Koningin van Paramaribo', ‘The queen of Paramaribo’. A novel about the live of a well-known prostitute in the capital city of Surinam. Based on the novel a theatre play was written. Accord's latest novel 'Bingo' deals with the gambling habits of Surinam people in the Netherlands.

Remembering Afro-German poet May Ayim

May Ayim (3 May 1960 in Hamburg — 9 August 1996 in Berlin) original name Sylvia Opitz was an Afro-German poet, educator, and activist. She studied Psychology and Education and wrote the book Showing Our Colors, Afro-German Women Speak Out. At this time she also co-founded the Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland (Initiative of Black People in Germany). After spending sometime without sleep or proper meals preparing for Black History Month in 1996, she suffered a mental and physical collapse. She was 36 when she met her death after jumping from the thirteenth floor of a Berlin building.
The documentary Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story

British Author Alex Wheatle

British Author Alex Wheatle was born in 1963 to Jamaican parents living in London. He spent most of his childhood in a children's home, which he left at 14 to live in a hostel in Brixton. At 18, he was involved in the Brixton uprising and went to prison for 3 months. His second novel, East of Acre Lane, won the London New Writers Award (2000). In his latest novel The Dirty South Wheatle brilliantly evokes the temptations ofthe thug life for young black men growing up in London's Dirty South.
Interview Alex Wheatle about the Brixton riots in 1981