The London Borough of Brent, or Brent, had the highest gun crime rate in London. Of course there is more to this multicultural area then crime, where black, white and Asian people seemingly live peacefully together. In two videos both sides are shown.
In the documentary Love In The City (LITC) a group of young people highlight the positives of Brent, as they were tired about hearing the negatives, and anti-knife and gun crime initiatives. LITC was an inter-generational summer 2009 youth project for young people to engage with their peers and different generations to find out mostly positive things about leaving in their areas, and some history.
In the video ‘Gun Crime in Brent’ the residents talk about the cause of the gun crimes.
Although it's interesting to see both sides, I still wonder why having "nothing do to" always seems to have the same effect in our communities.
The countdown for Nneka's new album "Concrete Jungle" has started. On February 2, 2010 her new Album Concrete Jungle will be in the US stores. But as an introduction to her new album the Nigerian/Afro-German singer/songwriter has released the clip "The Uncomfortable Truth".
But there is more. She also collaborated with Brooklyn-based Mixtape DJ, remixer and hip-hop producer J .Period to put together a mixtape entitled: The Madness (Onye-Ala). You can download it free here.
Concha Buika is a critically acclaimed flamenco fusion vocalist from Spain. Born in 1972 in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, she is the daughter of political refugees from the former Spanish African colony Equatorial Guinea. She made her full-length recording debut with Buika (2005) on Dro Atlantic. On of the popular songs of the album is 'New Afro spanish generation'(video). The song is about being black and Spanish.
She collaborated with accomplished producer Javier Limón for her second album, Mi Niña Lola (2006). Her breakthrough release, Mi Niña Lola, sold over 100,000 copies in Spain. She collaborated with Limón again for her third album, Niña de Fuego (2008), which garnered a Latin Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Though Buika was frequently acclaimed by critics, the nomination came as a surprise, as she was little known outside the Spanish flamenco fusion scene. (Source: Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide)
La falsa moneda is from the album Niña de Fuego (2008)
Photo: Fally Ipupa and Olivia Longott Saturday January 2nd 2010, Congolese singer Fally Ipupa will take possession of The Zenith in Paris from midnight to dawn. He will present his new album ‘Arsenal de Belles Mélodies’ to the French public. And this, after a triumphant tour on the African continent. With his song Droit Chemin (2006) he won a Trophée Arts Afro-Caribbean, and a gold record. He sold out stadiums in Africa, and performed with the popular group Kassav.
During the show in Paris he will receive a gold record for his achievements. He will be accompanied by the American R&B singer Olivia Longott, Longott was signed to the G Unit label of rapper 50 Cent. On January 2nd The Zenith will tremble on the sounds of this popular innovative artist, who wants to produce "world music another way".
For the first time in Paris, the Caribbean islands, combined with 42 African countries, will introduce a new journey called the 'Le Marché international de Noël tropical de Paris' (International Tropical Christmas Market of Paris).
It’s an Ultramarines mix of: crafts, clothing, jewelry, spices and other delicious cuisines.
Place: Paris La Villette, from 18 to 20 December 2009
“What writing is for Jewish people, is making music for black people,” said my old Jewish High school classmate Ab a long long time ago.
His statement suddenly came to my mind while seeing a creative book video (see below), which I spotted on the blog De-cluttering my Mind
But is he right about black people? Of course there are lot of black writers out there. UK's Zadie Smith (picture), France's Marie NDiaye and my all time favorite, the American James Baldwin. I remember I had to defend my choice of Baldwin on my English literature list. Baldwin was not considered “literature”, at least not on my high school in Amsterdam.
Back to classmate and Jewish encyclopedia Ab. He added. “The reason why the influence of Jewish people in Hollywood is big, is also because there are many Jewish writers. We create are own heroes. That’s why black people don’t get Oscars.“
This reminds me of the global discussion about the underrepresentation of black people in the movies, and about the problems of black actors on ‘white’ stages. About these problem a black producer once said, “we need black writers who write black stories so we can create are own heroes in plays and films. “But,” he added, “ you need quantity to get quality.” I forgot to ask what he was implying. But I refuse to believe that what writing is for Jewish people, is making music to black people. If that’s true then black people will be chained to Hip Hop videos forever, and the rest of the planet will create their own stories and transform them into block buster movies.
Chuck D once called Rap music the black CNN. I think I’ve heard enough ‘black’ news by now, I would like to read some of it on paper for the change. And the oral history thing? It’s just another way of saying that we don’t read books.
Back to the video: the video is of course what story writing is all about: creating a reader’s experience. The moment you open a book you must feel as if you were sitting in a train heading west. You see the smoke of locomotive, feel the bumpy railway and hear the train conductor saying: “ tickets please.” Yes, I tried!
And for the one who wants to be a writer, here’s the cliché tip from the writers wannabe class: Read Tsjechov! Read some of his short stories here.
And Ab? He started a Klezmer band. So he was wrong after all.
Another post of 'Black European nobility tucked away'. This time Italian Alessandro de Medici (1510 - 1537), first duke of Florence, and the first black head of a European state. His nickname was "il Moro" ("the Moor").
In an interesting PBS article the author Mario de Valdes y Cocom writes about Alessandro de Medici, and also about how his African ancestry was downplayed in an Exhibit: "Despite the many portraits of this 16th century Italian Renaissance figure, Alessandro de Medici's African heritage is rarely, if ever, mentioned.
Alessandro wielded great power as the first duke of Florence. He was the patron of some of the leading artists of the era and is one of the two Medici princes whose remains are buried in the famous tomb by Michaelangelo. The ethnic make up of this Medici Prince makes him the first black head of state in the modern western world. Alessandro was born in 1510 to a black serving woman in the Medici household who, after her subsequent marriage to a muleteer, is simply referred to in existing documents as Simonetta da Collavechio. Historians today are convinced that Alessandro was fathered by the seventeen year old Cardinal Giulio de Medici who later became Pope Clement VII. Cardinal Giulio was the nephew of Lorenzo the Magnificent."
The post 'Black European nobility tucked away', was about the research of Egmond Codfried. Although Alessandro de Medici was not mentioned in the post, he was part of the research. The goal of the research, according to Codfried, is to prove that Europe was never as 'white' as we have been taught. Black people were always in Europe, even among the European nobility.
Special thanks to Annalisa Butticci, who noticed that Alessandro de Medici was not mentioned in the story.
Watch the exclusive music video for “I See You” (Theme from Avatar) by Leona Lewis. 'Avatar' (in theaters December 18) is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters. Written and directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. In theaters December 18. More info at Avatarmovie.com
A nativity scene featuring a dark-skinned Jesus, Mary and Joseph has caused a storm after going on display in a Verona courthouse.
The nativity's appearance coincides with the right-wing Northern League's controversial operation 'White Christmas', a two-month sweep ending on Christmas Day to ferret out foreigners without proper permits in Coccaglio, a small League-led town east of Milan.
The Christmas scene - featuring a dark-skinned baby Jesus dressed in a red shirt and lying in a manger - was the idea of Mario Giulio Schinaia, the chief Public Prosecutor in Verona.
The Dutch speaking community of Belgium (60% of the total population) has a TV show with a black main character. This is a first timer! Uwamungu Cornelis is a Flemish actor of Rwandan descent. He has been doing the one man show ‘Mungu’ with which he was very successful throughout Dutch speaking Belgium. In this show he tackled the issues of being black and Flemish in a society that virtually ignores the existence of Flemish citizens of African descent.
He played a secondary role in the Flemish soap Kaat & Co and now is the lead actor in the new comedy soap Super8. This show started to be broadcasted a few months ago. I didn’t see this show yet, although I heard that the new digital TV station TV8, which produced it and broadcasts it, is of a good quality.
Photo: Château des ducs de Bretagne in Nantes During the 18th century, prior to abolition of slavery, Nantes was the slave trade capital of France. This kind of trade caused Nantes to become the first port in France and a wealthy city.
Till 3th Januari 2010 there is an exhibit 'Traite négrière et esclavage: la traversée' (Slave Trade and Slavery: crossing) in the Château des ducs de Bretagne in Nantes.
Blogger Mademoiselle Nadia visited the exhibit. On her blog Bounjour France she wrote: "Seeing actual shackles and chains that slaves wore in person has the capability to hit you pretty hard. In cases for our viewing, there were shackles and chains that these that marked the end of the freedom of the African slaves who were brought over to the new world via la traversée." The very shackles that they wore...It was powerful." read her full story here.
A very inspiring documentary of a group of self-taught young actors in Dafur. They perform in the streets of their village and in the neighbouring refugee camp.
As someone from the 'West', Dafur is about war, human rights violation and ethnic cleansing. Dafur is chaos. It’s a place where Arabs are killing black people like sheep. It’s like a black planet without an ozone layer. So far my European view.
But in this documentary I saw artists who perform for their people, who spark the dialog and reach out to people who are perceived to be ‘the others’. So yes people also “live” there. They think about the future and make theatre plays. I saw artistic director Haythum Djalladien taking a cab in Darfur. (Small observation: the cab looked very new.)
There is still a war going on there! And it’s filthy. But it's also good to see change at work in Darfur.
Most interesting quote: Money runs out but ideas last.
The London Borough of Brent, or Brent, had the highest gun crime rate in London. Of course there is more to this multicultural area then crime, where black, white and Asian people seemingly live peacefully together. In two videos both sides are shown.
