Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
We are not born American, anymore than we are born Christian, Muslim or Jew. We are not born a Hindu or a Jain, a Sikh or an Atheist. We are not born French, Ugandan, Chinese or Uzbek. We may become those things in time, but at birth, we are from Dust. When we die, we become Dust. Can anyone really, with the naked eye, divide one particle of Dust from another? Can our differences be so great that those differences are easily made out in a maelstrom of particles dusted across the Universe? What does it mean then, to be American? To be French or Ugandan? To be Chinese or Uzbek? What does it mean to be a Christian, a Muslim or a Jew? A Hindu or a Jain? A Sikh or an Atheist? Human ego, small-minded bigotry or national identity might demand that we are special; the few among the many. But as it was in the Beginning, so it shall be in the End; we are nothing more than...
Common Dust
And who shall separate the dust
What later we shall be:
Whose keen discerning eye will scan
And solve the mystery?
The high, the low, the rich, the poor,
The black, the white, the red,
And all the chromatique between,
Of whom shall it be said:
Here lies the dust of Africa;
Here are the sons of Rome;
Here lies the one unlabelled,
The world at large his home!
Can one then separate the dust?
Will mankind lie apart,
When life has settled back again
The same as from the start?
-- Georgia Douglas Johnson
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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When government services are cut, history shows there are real world consequences. FiveThirtyEight: Why The Bronx Really Burned.
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Game 2 of the 1977 World Series was a bit of a blowout, with the Los Angeles Dodgers jumping to an early lead and eventually beating the New York Yankees 6-1. While the action on the field may not have captured its attention, the audience watching from home was witness to a piece of broadcasting history. A few hours before the first pitch, a large fire had broken out in an abandoned school near Yankee Stadium. As flames engulfed the building, not a firetruck in sight, legend has it that Howard Cosell uttered one of his most memorable phrases: “There it is, ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning.”
It’s a powerful and enduring collective memory, and it almost doesn’t matter that Cosell never actually uttered those words.1 It was the nation’s glimpse into a time when the Bronx — and many other parts of New York City — were decimated by fire.
Between 1970 and 1980, seven census tracts in the Bronx lost more than 97 percent of their buildings to fire and abandonment. Forty-four tracts lost more than half. The results were staggering — blocks and blocks of rubble.
At the time, the prevailing narrative was that many of the fires were due to arson — either by slumlords looking to collect insurance money or tenants looking to take advantage of a housing law that prioritized victims of fire for subsidies.
But in his book “The Fires,” Joe Flood2 lays the blame on something else — a misguided “best and brightest” effort by New York City to increase government efficiency. With the help of the Rand Corp., the city tried to measure fire response times, identify redundancies in service, and close or re-allocate fire stations accordingly. What resulted, though, was a perfect storm of bad data: The methodology was flawed, the analysis was rife with biases, and the results were interpreted in a way that stacked the deck against poorer neighborhoods. The slower response times allowed smaller fires to rage uncontrolled in the city’s most vulnerable communities.
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Military says 338 captives have been rescued in raids on group’s Sambisa Forest stronghold, with 30 militants killed. The Guardian: Nigeria rescues hundreds of women and children from Boko Haram.
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Nigerian troops have rescued 338 captives, almost all women and children, from Boko Haram camps in a forest in the north-east of the country, the military has said. A defence headquarters statement on Wednesday said 30 extremists were killed the previous day in raids on two camps on the fringes of the insurgents’ stronghold in Sambisa Forest.
Separately, troops ambushed and killed four suspects on a bombing mission in the north-eastern Adamawa state, it said. Hundreds of people have died in suicide bombing attacks, mainly targeting mosques and markets, in recent months.
The military posted photographs of several guns and ammunition it said were seized in the attacks, along with images of the bodies of alleged insurgents.
Nigerian troops have rescued hundreds of Boko Haram captives this year, but none of the 219 girls kidnapped – more than 50 had earlier escaped – from a school in Chibok. Their mass abduction in April 2014 caused international outrage against the militants and anger at Nigeria’s government for failing to rescue them.
The kidnapping highlighted military and government failures in fighting the six-year-old uprising that has left an estimated 20,000 people dead and driven 2.3 million from their homes, according to Amnesty International and the United Nations.
Nigerians take part in a protest demanding for the release of secondary school girls abducted from the remote village of Chibok, in Asokoro, Abuja May 13, 2014
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Academics say the Dominican bureaucracy has long sought to block the children of Haitian migrants from gaining an official foothold in the country. New York Times: Born Dominican, but Locked Out by Haitian Roots.
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On any given weekday morning, children in the capital pile one behind the other on motoconchos, or motorcycle taxis, their pale-blue school uniforms zipping by buses, trucks and cars, ponytails blowing in the wind.
Ruben Chery, 33, a barber in a neighborhood called Little Haiti, remembers going to public school like other Dominican-born children. He remembers the excitement of waking up and heading out to class. But most of all, like a sharp slap, he remembers the bitter moment when his seventh-grade teacher told him that he could not continue his education, that he would never move on to high school.
“I didn’t have any identifying documents; I could not finish my high school education,” Mr. Chery said. “I am stuck in the seventh grade forever.”
For years, going to high school in the Dominican Republic required proof of citizenship, an obstacle that tens of thousands of people of Haitian descent — even many who were born here, like Mr. Chery — have struggled their entire lives to overcome and even passed on to their children.
Obtaining that proof can be nearly impossible, the legacy of a bureaucracy that academics say has long sought to block the children of Haitian migrants from gaining an official foothold in the country.
Haitian migrants have had trouble getting birth certificates for the children they have had in this country for generations. Then, when those Dominican-born children grow old enough to have families of their own, they have no documentation to prove their nationality, either.
Yvroze Alphonse, 33, and her children at their home in Batey Naranjo, an impoverished community of sugar cane workers of primarily Haitian descent, on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. Ms. Alphonse moved to the Dominican Republic illegally, but registered herself and her children in the government's naturalization program. Credit Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
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The famed poet’s new full-length album, ‘Black Tea: The Legend of Jessi James,’ features Talib Kweli, Roy Ayers and more... Ebony: jessica Care moore Mixes Art + Activism to a ‘Tea’.
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Detroit is famous for its music, from Motown to techno and house, to Eminem and Dilla. But it’s less well known for its stellar, homegrown poets. A native daughter of the D, jessica Care moore first won hearts with her five-time winning streak on It’s Showtime at the Apollo back in 1995, after newly transplanting herself to New York City at age 22 a year after her father’s death.
A fiery performer of blunt-force truth emerged onstage that night. From a petite young woman in a demure dress and box braids exploded a voice that was unapologetically centered in her own visceral experiences as a hip-hop generation-identified sista poet. She knocked that famously tough Apollo audience out cold with the searing conviction of her Black-woman-uplifting poem, “Black Statue of Liberty.”
Moore’s poetry has always been equal parts personal and political, and her multitasking abilities are formidable: she’s also an independent book publisher who issued the literary debuts of fellow poets—including Saul Williams and Newark, New Jersey mayor Ras Baraka—on her won Moore Black Press. All that, and she’s the doting, proud mom of two sons.
Rapper Talib Kweli, Moore’s longtime pal, thought the poet his ideal choice to sign to his Javotti Media label when “one day, she was in my crib kicking it and played me the album she fully intended to release on her own, and the album blew me away. It was excellent. I had to be involved.”
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jessica Care moore
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Brian Eason, a sheriff’s deputy, said that when he went to an Elmer’s restaurant in December, he was told to pay for his food before it was served, while white customers were not asked to do the same. The Oregonian: Black man told to 'prepay' for breakfast at Elmer's — white customers weren't — says $100k suit.
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Brian Eason had gone to the Elmer's on Dec. 16, 2014, to find a quiet place to eat and write Christmas cards to his clients, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Multnomah County Circuit Court. Eason, 44, is a real estate agent, as well as a deputy with the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office.
Eason's suit claims that a waitress took his order, then "demanded that he prepay for his meal."
"I was kind of curious about it and said 'Well, is that new?' And she said 'Yes, we had a few walk-aways and my boss asked me to ask for prepayment," Eason told The Oregonian/OregonLive on Wednesday.
Eason didn't think anything of it, he said, until he later ordered another drink and the waitress again wanted prepayment.
"I said 'This is kind of odd that I have to prepay every time I order my food and drink,'" Eason recounted. "She said, 'I think it's discrimination and my boss is here, and she's forcing me to have me do this.'"
Eason said the waitress was very apologetic, and he felt bad for her. He said he gave her a big tip and one of the $10 Starbucks cards he had planned to send to his clients.
But her comments began to bother him, so he went back to the restaurant 30 minutes later, walked up to a table where two white people were dining and asked whether they'd been required to prepay for their meals. When they said they hadn't, he asked for their names and phone numbers. They gave them to him.
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Welcome to the Black Kos Community Front Porch!
Pull up a chair and sit down a while and enjoy the company.