French MP Harlem Désir set to become first black man to lead a major European political party

Photo: www.1001topwords.com

Via Euromight
The French Euro MP Harlem Désir appears certain next month to become the first black man to lead a major European political party.

Video: Julian Williams - "Anders Sein" ("Being different")

Via Black German Heritage & Research Association
The new track "Anders Sein" ("Being different") from German hip hop singer Julian Williams

African homecoming: A way of healing or just diasporic dreaming?

Can Black people of the 'old' diaspora still make the connection with Africa, or is it just unrealistic day dreaming? In August producer and activist Bamba Nazar organised the event “African Homecoming” in Amsterdam, dedicated to the bridging between Africa and the diaspora. He was triggered by his journey to the slave island of Gorée in Senegal.  But Dutch cultural critic and blogger Plug is skeptic about this new Pan-Africanisme.

Esperanza Spalding - "Sunlight" (Live)

Esperanza Spalding performs "Sunlight" on Austin City Limits

Black Spanish Youth Day in Madrid

From Folklore to political speech. Building a black grassroot responsability leadership in crisis time for the hip-hop generation. Black Spanish Youth Day in Madrid (Spain) on 19 October 2012

http://www.foja-jovenesnegros.blogspot.nl/

Photo exposition: "AfricaMi" – Faces of the city in Milan Italy

"Look at the faces and stories from the city to the Expo: AfricaMi", is a photo exhibit which will be organised by the Italian Institute of Photography, in collaboration with the Association Assaman (2 - 7 October 2012 ).

Video: Black people don't travel?

This is very subjective. I was in Paris this summer and at some places in the city you hardly see black tourists and at some places you see many black tourists. So..

Pauline Black: The Selector ‘Live in Britain tour 2012 and book ‘Black by Design’

The Ska band The Selecter (from the 70s) with lead singer Pauline Black have released their new Album 'Made in Britain' and will be touring Britain in October. Pauline Black has published a book last year entitled ‘Black by Design’, a book about being mixed-race, being adopted by a white couple, and tracing her biological roots.

Afro-Argentines - Still the people in the land of the vanishing Blacks?

Photo: Ebony

Have Afro-Argentines stopped being vanishing blacks, as Ebony Magazine called them back in 1973? Ebony editor Era Bell Thompson wrote, “What I found was not a viable, but a vanishing black people: relatively few in numbers, relatively free of racial discrimination and relatively content. Summarized by one gentleman, if there were more of us, perhaps it would be different."

Video: film “Revolución” highlights erased history of black Argentine soldiers

In the collective memory of Argentina the history of Argentine black people is erased completely. "Black people do not exist in Argentina," said former Argentine President Carlos Menem. But huge numbers of black soldiers fought in every independence war of the country. In the Argentine film “Revolución - El cruce de Los Andes” (2010), which follows the life of Argentine hero General José de San Martín, their contribution is highlighted. The film premiered during the bicentennial of Argentina.

Video: Zadie Smith reads from her new London city novel "NW"

"Writer Zadie Smith burst onto the literary scene with her first novel White Teeth more than a decade ago. Set in the Northwest London neighborhood where she grew up, White Teeth captured the diverse, vibrant rhythms of a city in transition. Smith returns to the neighborhood in her new novel, NW, but this is a sobering homecoming." - NPR

Zadie Smith interviews Jay-Z - The House That Hova Built

Photograph by Cass Bird. Fashion editor: Sara Moonves

For the New York Times Magazine British writer Zadie Smith sits down with rapper Jay-Z and describes and interviews him. 

It’s difficult to know what to ask a rapper. It’s not unlike the difficulty (I imagine) of being a rapper.

He’s not late. He’s dressed like a kid, in cap and jeans, if he said he was 30 you wouldn’t doubt him. (He’s 42.) He’s overwhelmingly familiar, which is of course a function of his fame ­ — rap superstar, husband of Beyoncé, minority owner of the Nets, whose new home, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, will open this month — but also of the fact he’s been speaking into our ears for so long.

Film: Story of Dido Belle - A mixed-race aristocrat in 18th-century Britain

Late 18th–early 19th century painting by unknown artist of Dido Elizabeth Belle, left, and her cousin. Courtesy Wikipedia

Via Madnews
The second feature to be written and directed by the British filmmaker Amma Asante, “Belle” will tell the story of a mixed-race woman raised as an aristocrat in 18th-century England. Dido Elizabeth Belle (1761-1804) was the illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay of the British navy and an enslaved woman, herself known as Belle.