Commentary
Robinswing, Black Kos Editor
Recently it seems, some of the so- called media is insinuating that by bowing to the Emperor of Japan, our president is a handkerchief - head, bowing and scraping Uncle Tom. Oh that is not how they wrote it.
What they wrote were lies about no President having ever shown such deference to a foreign leader. Forget the photos showing two Republican’t Presidents bowing and one former resident of 1600 Pennsylvania holding hands while walking long side a Saudi Prince. These folk lie boldly.
Some folks have tried just about everything in an effort to demean and diminish the first African American President. For all the black folk and some of the white, it is hard to take.
In the alternate reality base of the Republican’ts, where Sarah Palin is qualified for anything, calling him names and constant questioning of his every move will lead Americans to figure out it’s too soon for White Males to give up the reins of power.
The Glenn Becks and Joe Wilson’s of this country have over-employed their imaginations. Imaginations fed by a deep well of intolerance and racial animus. They have opened these wells to the general populace. Their desperation makes them bolder.
Uppity. Celebrity. Slick (this is what calling him a Chicago politician actually means).
A Muslim with a Messianic complex. What else would you call a black man who had the nerve to think he could be President? Of. The United. States. The audacity to win.
Which is it? A Dictator ala Adolph or a bowing scraping handkerchief head Uncle Tom?
Is he an elitist, defeatist anti-Christ or just someone who gives good speeches handkerchief head Uncle Tom? Uncle Tom.
He hangs out with terrorist. He’s a Tom. He has been depicted as weak (as when he would not slam Hillary) and the power in his administration is his chief of staff (Rahm made him do it Emmanuel). I won’t even try to say how offensive this idea is to me.
He has done nothing to deserve the acclaim of the world and the Nobel Prize Committee.
His wife is alternately Angela Davis and Jacqueline Kennedy. Translation...she does not seem intimidated by the presence of white folk. Neither Barack Obama nor his lovely wife seems to know their place. If they haven’t already I fully expect to see her portrayed as Aunt Jemima in a comedy skit on SNL or some such.
Right. And. Left.
What place does the first Black man elected POTUS have beyond the historical nature of it all if he is unable to govern? The essence of the Glenn Beck and Joe Wilsons of this country is to try to make it impossible for him to actually govern. If he were the man of the stereotypes he would not be able to accomplish anything. Some want the stereotypes to be true more than they want a country able to move past the idiocy of recent years.
Compromise has become a dirty word. Used to be the essence of good politics. Now it is an epiteth thrown at a man with the nerve to try to govern the whole country rather than any one segment of the population.
Nobody seems to like this about him. Except me. I like the nobility of it all. Probably won’t work but it is a noble gesture.
This nobility is being twisted into the idea that he is too weak and accommodating to be the President this country. We liked the image of the cowboy. Reagan. Bush.
It’s really the cowboys vs homeboys. Democrats are the homeboys. Bill was Bubba. Homeboy of the south. Obama is Chicago. Street homeboy.
As we approach Thanksgiving I am thankful I don’t fall for the bullshit.
Obama is an exceptional man. This cannot be denied. He has what we call in the community, heart. As in courage. I don’t even know why he would want to be president in this country during these times. Tough out there. Even his friends in the grassroots seem ready to abandon ship.
I keep wondering whom they are supporting. The answer I keep getting is Sarah Palin. Cowgirl.
Guess that is better than allowing the President the time needed to accomplish all of his goals. At least then there will be something to get really hopped up about. Some folk stay hyped and hopped up. These folk tend not to be activist. Activists learn how things work and coolly try to rework them. In my whole life I have never met a hopped up effective activist. Burn out rate on that is high. They don’t get much done.
I was a part of the Civil Rights Movement. The hopped up did not march. Plan. Organize. They shouted from street corners and burned down cities.
There were those who also called MLK a Tom. Lots of black folk had grown weary of the murders and injustices of segregation. They wanted to fight back. King didn’t. So he was called a Tom in some quarters. Being called a Tom is one of the worse things that can happen to a black man in this country. No matter the character in the Stowe book, in the black community being a Tom is the ultimate in betrayal.
This week past I heard the Uncle Tom dog whistle. Don’t like it one bit. President Obama is not a Tom.
I’ve got news for anyone who thinks so. I happen to have a copy of The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms and Barack Obama’s name is not in it.
Now run and tell that.
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This week's news by Amazinggrace and dopper0189, Black Kos Editor and Managing Editor
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Shocked, just shocked at this revelation!!! Maynard Institute: Explosive Charges of Racism, Sexism at New York Post.
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Sandra Guzman, the Latina editor at the New York Post who was fired last month after having objected to the Post's infamous "chimp" cartoon, has countered with a lawsuit against the tabloid that, if it is to be believed, validates every suspicion uttered over the years about the newspaper's racism and sexism.
"The Post's blatant acts of race and sex discrimination and/or harassment have not been directed solely at its own employees," Guzman's lawsuit says. "Rather, the Post has also repeatedly targeted people of color and women outside of the Company with its racism and sexism through racially and sexually offensive news headlines, news stories and humiliating, insulting and degrading cartoons."
The 34-page filing takes the reader inside the tabloid's newsroom during the controversy that followed the February publication of the Sean Delonas cartoon comparing the author of President Obama's stimulus package to a dead chimpanzee.
The image was widely taken to represent Obama, although Delonas denied that. While owner Rupert Murdoch eventually apologized, Guzman writes that Australian-born Editor Col Allan, "while many protestors were downstairs protesting in front of the Post's building shortly after the cartoon was published, openly demeaned the protesters in racist terms by stating, 'Most of them are minorities and the majority are uneducated,' and then proceeded to laugh at the protestors. . . . read more here -->
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When movies like "Boyz in the Hood", "Hoop Dreams", "Amistad", and to some extent "The Color Purple" never seem to win, but "Driving Miss Daisy", "Mosterball", and "Radio" do it makes these next setiments easier to understand. Newsone: Writer Says "Precious" Is As Damaging As "Birth Of A Nation".
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Writer, Armond White had some very harsh things to say about the movie, "Precious" in an article in the New York Press. He blames Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry.
SHAME ON TYLER PERRY and Oprah Winfrey for signing on as air-quote executive producers of Precious.
Perry and Winfrey naively treat Precious’ exhibition of ghetto tragedy and female disempowerment as if it were raw truth. It helps contrast and highlight their achievements as black American paradigms—self-respect be damned.
He goes on to compare the movie to the "Birth Of A Nation," the 1915 movie which portrayed Africans Americans as evil and stupid and the KKK as heroes.
Not since The Birth of a Nation has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as Precious. Full of brazenly racist clichés (Precious steals and eats an entire bucket of fried chicken), it is a sociological horror show. Offering racist hysteria masquerading as social sensitivity, it’s been acclaimed on the international festival circuit that usually disdains movies about black Americans as somehow inartistic and unworthy.
Birth of a Nation glorified the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a panicky subculture’s solution to social change. Precious hyperbolizes the class misery of our nation’s left-behinds—not the post- Rapture reprobates of Christianity’s last-days theories, but the Obama-era unreachables—including Precious’ Benetton-esque assortment of remedial school classmates. One explanation is that Precious permits a cultural version of that 1960s political controversy "benign neglect"—its agreed-upon selection of the most pathetic racial images and social catastrophes helps to normalize the circumstances of poverty and abandon that will never change or be resolved.You can think: Precious is just how those people are (although Cops and the Jerry Springer and Maury Povich shows offer enough evidence that white folks live low, too).
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Maybe some of these will wind up in Michele Obama's garden next year? Philadelphia Inquirer: Landreth Seed Co. turns 225, launches African American collection.
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In the words of Melera, a former venture capitalist whose twin passions are history and gardening, "For generation after generation, the Landreths taught people in this country how to garden and how to farm. We're going to do what this company was founded to do."
Melera is aware of the grandiosity of her declaration. "It's an enormous legacy to uphold, but that's what charges me up every single morning," she says of the company made famous for supplying seeds to every president from George Washington to FDR.
Part of the birthday celebration involves a 70-page commemorative catalog to be offered free to the public starting Dec. 10. (You can order online at www.landrethseeds.com or by calling 1-800-654-2407.) Its cover replicates Landreth's 1884 centennial catalog, and it will be the last one given out for free.
Another piece involves a new African American Heritage Collection, which is not free but is unusual. It comprises so-called heirloom seeds for 34 vegetables, grains, and herbs - like West Indian callaloo spinach and Jamaican sweet potato pumpkin - that were the dietary staples of slaves brought to this country from Africa and the Caribbean, and adopted by their descendants and others.
Opinions vary on how old a variety should be to qualify as an heirloom, but most consider seeds grown before 1950 to fit that description. read more here -->
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He was the man who invented rap, "the black Bob Dylan".As lanky as a basketball player, he delivered jeremiads against racism and poverty, but with such nonchalant poise that he might have been a Harlem Globetrotter. BBC: The legendary godfather of rap returns.
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Jazzy grooves and deft lyrics took his records into the pop charts in Britain and the United States.
Alongside fellow music luminaries Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley, he successfully campaigned for the civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King to be recognised with a public holiday in the US.
But then something happened to Gil Scott-Heron. The records dried up. He stopped touring. He was arrested and jailed over possession of cocaine and rumours circulated about his health.
When I mentioned Gil Scott-Heron to friends and colleagues, the ones who remembered him at all had the same question: "Is he still alive?"
In a supper club in New York City a few nights ago, a spare figure, rising on great spindly legs like a wading bird, loped on stage barely three-quarters of an hour after his allotted slot.
"Those of you who thought I wouldn't make it, you lose," he grinned. "Those of you who thought I wouldn't be here on time, you break even!" read more here -->
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If Jesse Helms hadn't race baited he would have been the first black Senator since reconstruction. Charlotte Observer: Gantt praised at center's opening
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Charlotte's new African-American heritage center opened Saturday, with its namesake calling it a monument to the struggle for equality.
"This beautiful, awesome building is far beyond my wildest dreams," said former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt. "I feel good about what this magnificent building represents – how far we have come."
Dedication ceremonies included three generations of Charlotte mayors. Gantt, who led the city from 1983 to 87; Pat McCrory, the current and outgoing mayor; and Anthony Foxx and John Lassiter, the two candidates in November's election. read more here -->
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Why is "acceptance" such a hard concept for so many people? RedEye : For transgender people, acceptance is hard to find-even in LGBT community
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When Adrianna King was turned out of her home, she went north in search of acceptance.
A transsexual woman with a shy smile, King, 21, moved to Lakeview earlier this year in hopes that gay-friendly Boystown would offer a haven safe from the harassment and abuse she suffered in her South Side neighborhood.
But Boystown wasn't always safe, and it wasn't always friendly.
King, born a male and in transition to becoming a woman, said she was turned away from Lakeview homeless shelters because management feared she'd be harassed by other boarders. She said she spent the summer sleeping in parks, abandoned buildings, "L" trains and on the lakefront. When nowhere felt safe, King walked all night through Lakeview's streets, waiting until the Center on Halsted opened so she could crash on its couches.
"Every morning I'd come to work, and she'd be outside in the rain," said Tiffany Traylor, a clinical case manager at the center, which serves the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. read more here -->
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America has a sad history of increased racial divisions in tough economic times. That's why stories like this that cut across the grain are so important. New York Times: A Racial Divide Is Bridged by Recession.
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During the housing boom, Henry County, a suburb of Atlanta, had its share of racial tension as more and more blacks joined the tens of thousands of others pouring in, creating a standoffish gap between the newcomers and the county’s oldtimers.
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But the recession has begun to erase those differences.
Blacks and whites have encountered one another in increasing numbers recently in the crowded waiting rooms of the welfare office and at the food pantry, where many of both races have ventured for the first time. Struggling black-owned businesses are attracting the attention of white patrons. Neighbors are commiserating across racial lines.
At the Division of Family and Children Services, Keasha Taylor, 36 and black, helped explain the system recently to a white mother. Ms. Taylor, who was there because her family had been evicted, told the mother, who was in line for food stamps, that a child with acute asthma might be eligible for Social Security. read more here -->
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African art was still one of my favorite classes in college (dopper0189) without movements like this it most likely wouldn't have been taught.Cornell Daily Sun: Africana Studies Program Celebrates 40 Years at C.U.
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Forty years ago, a group of African-American students deposited hundreds of books at the undergraduate library circulation desk and declared them irrelevant to their historical experience.
This symbolic gesture is only one of many that took shape on Cornell’s campus in the late 1960s. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, rising racial tensions at Cornell reached a climax when a group of black students occupied Willard Straight Hall during Parents’ Weekend on April 19, 1969, garnering national attention.
After some white students attacked those leading the occupation, organizers inside the Straight brought guns into their seizure. Thirty-six hours later, black students marched out of the Straight with their weapons lowered and the prospect of a new program that would reflect their history.look: Tiffany Mui ’10 and Andrew Murphy ’11 visit Johnnson Museum’s "Africana @ 40" exhibition on Saturday.look: Tiffany Mui ’10 and Andrew Murphy ’11 visit Johnnson Museum’s "Africana @ 40" exhibition on Saturday.
Emerging from these tumultuous times was the development of an Africana studies curriculum and the creation of the Africana Studies and Research Center, which holds all the Africana studies courses. read more here -->
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The title made us do a double take. HuffingtonPost: Space Shuttle Launch: Chicago Surgeon To Operate On Space Station's Robotic Arms.
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The nation's space program is calling on a Chicago surgeon to fix faulty robotic arms on the international space station, Monifa Thomas of the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Dr. Robert Satcher Jr., 44, will become the first orthopedic surgeon in space when he and five other astronauts climb into the space shuttle Atlantis and blast their way to the space station after Monday's 2:28 p.m. launch.
During the 11-day mission, Satcher will look at how outer space affects the human immune system and tinker with the robotic arms on the space station's exterior.
A bone cancer specialist at Northwestern Memorial and Children's Memorial Hospitals, Satcher has been documenting his astronaut training and the run-up to next week's launch on his Twitter account. He says he'll be the third physician with Northwestern ties to go into space. read more here -->
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Good works! We need more programs like this to cut down on recidivism. New York Times: College Ivy Sprouts at a Connecticut Prison.
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In many ways it was just another day, another class of Wesleyan University, one of the more selective colleges in the Northeast. The topic was multiculturalism in schools. The discussion focused on methods of evaluating the rhetorical skills of various commentators, from Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. to Dinesh D’Souza.
One student pored over the text, his glasses perched at the tip of his nose. Another raised his hand again and again, eager to speak. A third lobbed grenades into the discussion. Several worried aloud about their homework, a research paper due in a few weeks.
Unlike other Wesleyan classes, though, each of the students — all men — had numbers like 271013 or 298331 on their khaki shirts. They were, in fact, inmates at the state prison here and all part of a daring, privately financed experiment in higher education that takes murderers and drug dealers and other inmates with histories of serious crime and gives them an opportunity to get an elite college education inside their high-security prison, the Cheshire Correctional Institution. read more here -->
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"What is it that they want now?" is the question white people ask when African Americans complain. An episode now in Natchitoches, Louisiana gives lessons about what happens when problems remain unresolved for years." Digital Journal: 'Darky' Statue Rekindles Racial Tensions in Louisiana.
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Years ago a family erected a statue in memory of a beloved friend. That friend was a servant they called Uncle Jack. His death had left such sadness with the family, they wanted to remember old Jack's contributions to their lives and to the community. The statue was built and put in the town square of Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Uncle Jack was African American. The statue showed him dressed finely, bowing slightly from the waist while doffing his hat as if to bid welcome or to show deep consideration. For years it stood in the town square, until the 1960's when civil rights groups raised concerns about its representation of "the old darky" as a subordinate, which they believed created a negative image of African Americans. The statue was soon taken down, then eventually put in Baton Rouge where it has remained since.
Over the years, according to Carolyn Harrington, recently retired from the town's historical museum, African Americans would inquire about the statue, wondering if it might not be returned and placed in an African American museum in Natchitoches so all people could understand the reference to a time when people of color were treated as subordinates and acted accordingly. White people, for the most part, had wondered why the statue had been taken down in the first place.
In the past few weeks, to the present time, the statue has again become part of new discussions about race, the statue, and the concerns of the African American community. The City Council approved a gesture to return the statue to Natchitoches as the Smithsonian considered it so valuable an artifact it had requested it for display in the Washington DC area. In response to that an overture was sought for the statue's return. One of the two African Americans on the city council voted with the majority in favor of the statue's becoming part of the Natchitoches area again.
All seemed well at first until the message went out that the statue was being returned to again occupy an area in the town square. 75 protestors descended on city hall just days ago to state their case against the return of the statue. The African American who had voted in favor of its return, Sylvia Morrow, in the meantime asked to rescind her original vote. read more here -->
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Truthfully how many readers weren't aware of this problem? CNN: Counting the world's 'invisible' children
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Most people take their birth certificates for granted, but for millions of people around the world, they simply do not exist, causing them to miss out on fundamental rights, including access to free health care and education services, according to the Britain-based international charity Plan.
Ten-year-old A-Lea is one of the generation of "invisible children." When he got ill, he was unable to visit the doctor. Instead he suffered at home in the remote mountainous district of Chiang Rai, northern Thailand.
As his condition deteriorated, he and his sister Orowan, 18, were forced to borrow money from a local loan shark to pay the hospital fees.
Orowan was also the victim of teasing and bullying at school. "One day, a teacher said to me in front of the whole class that I was not a Thai citizen and there's no point me continuing to study. I felt really embarrassed and hurt," she told Plan. "I had to walk out of the classroom and go home immediately. I haven't been back to that school since." read more here -->
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At Jeevanjee gardens in Nairobi, smokers gather during their lunch hour to read, chat and light up. BBC: Africa heading for 'smoking epidemic'.
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It is one of the few zones in the Kenyan capital where people can smoke in public, since the ban on smoking in public came into effect in 2007. As he takes a puff, one of the young men describes his habit.
"I've been smoking for 40 years but I hate it," he says.
"I have often tried to give up by throwing cigarettes into the toilet, but I have not succeeded in stopping smoking."
He says he smokes about 40 a day, but would smoke more if he had more money.
"It is expensive for me so I sometimes go without lunch."
According to some researchers, tobacco addiction is rapidly increasing in Africa. read more here -->
Increasing diversity, born out of boom, forces Chinese to confront old prejudices. Washington Post: Racial rethinking as Obama visits.
As a mixed-race girl growing up in this most cosmopolitan of mainland Chinese cities, 20-year-old Lou Jing said she never experienced much discrimination -- curiosity and questions, but never hostility.
So nothing prepared Lou, whose father is a black American, for the furor that erupted in late August when she beat out thousands of other young women on "Go! Oriental Angel," a televised talent show. Angry Internet posters called her a "black chimpanzee" and worse. One called for all blacks in China to be deported.
As the country gets ready to welcome the first African American U.S. president, whose first official visit here starts Sunday, the Chinese are confronting their attitudes toward race, including some deeply held prejudices about black people. Many appeared stunned that Americans had elected a black man, and President Obama's visit has underscored Chinese ambivalence about the growing numbers of blacks living here. read more here -->
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Greater use of the skills and resources of a countries diaspora is one of the best ways to speed development. Share: KC 'old boys' urged to help restore alma mater.
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amaican businessman and Kingston College alumnus, Dennis Lalor, has called on past students in the Greater Toronto Area to seriously consider making financial donations to their alma mater which, he said, needs an urgent facelift.
Speaking at the Kingston College Old Boys Association's (Toronto chapter) 36th annual awards gala recently, the chartered insurer said some Can$35 million is needed to fix the school's crumbling infrastructure which is impacting negatively on both students and teachers.
"A major problem being experienced at KC is inadequate classroom space," said Lalor who founded the Insurance Company of the West Indies in 1968. "Presently, there is no sixth form block and students are nomadic, moving from classroom to classroom and waiting under trees for classes to end. Despite the excellent CSEC (Caribbean Secondary Examinations Council) results, some 55 students who qualified to return to sixth form were turned away due to lack of space. read more here -->
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Changing demographics. Share: Unions urged to partner with racialized groups.
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Unions, in their best interest, should pay heed to the fast-changing demographics of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and other parts of Canada and enhance their legitimacy by building meaningful partnerships with African-Canadian and other racialized communities, says activist and union administrator, Christopher Wilson.
Aboriginal workers are the fastest growing population in the Prairies and Quebec and it's predicted that workers of colour will represent over 50 per cent of the labour force in the GTA in the next decade.
"It's not enough for a union to say it has hired a certain number of racialized workers if the distribution of power and decision-making remains unaltered," said Wilson, in his keynote address at the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) Ontario chapter's 13th annual awards dinner last Saturday night. read more here -->
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It's nice to see an uptick in black celebrities promoting the arts. New York Times: Jay-Z, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith Have Joined ‘Fela!’ as Producers.
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Jay-Z, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have signed on as producers of the new Broadway musical "Fela!" and will attend the show’s opening night at the Eugene O’Neill Theater next Monday, Nov. 23, a publicist for the production said.
"Fela!" represents the first time that Jay-Z and the Smiths have joined a producing team of a Broadway show. Their artistic involvement in the musical is bound to be minimal, given that the show is already in previews and had a critically acclaimed run Off Broadway last year.
But the presence of three high-wattage celebrities at opening night, and the likelihood that they will promote the show through television appearances and media interviews, is bound to raise the public profile of "Fela!" at a time when theatergoers have plenty of choices for Broadway musicals.
Revivals of "Ragtime," "Finian’s Rainbow," and "Bye Bye Birdie" opened this fall, as did the new musical "Memphis," and the much-anticipated revival of Stephen Sondheim’s "A Little Night Music" opens next month. Several musical entries from last season, like "Billy Elliot," "Hair" and "Next to Normal," are still going strong. read more here -->
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Carnival! Share: Grenada shows off its Shortknee mas
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Carnival is a ritual of reversal, a kaleidoscope re-enactment of society's power struggles and a cultural stage on which the triumph and lustful flesh mainly of working class people make way for the advent of soul, says cultural historian, Caldwell Taylor.
"Carnival is about overthrowing the existing order and it's about reversion and reversal," he said at an event last week at the St. Lawrence Hall to present a cultural exhibit titled, "Showcasing the Shortknee: The Iconic Image of Grenada's Traditional Carnival. "It's about envisioning a new world. On Carnival Day, the masquerader attempts to re-live the social relations in a particular country. Carnival is about jump up, dance and ways of re-making the world." read more here -->
Grenadian Shortknee Mas
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