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Too Bad She Isn't Going To Howard |
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Too Bad She Isn't Going To Howard
by David Rambeau
youtube.com/projectbaitdet
Every so often I get an email or read a story like this one and think, ''Too bad she isn't going to a university where she can get a real education, to a school like Howard University, where my daughter graduated. Too bad blacks are still so sick that they think a eurocentric environment (educational, employment, etc.) is where they should aspire to be. Sick as in a lack of personal self esteem and cultural orientation. Sick as in ready to sacrifice identity and culture for thirty pieces of alabaster. Sick to think the white boy's ice is colder. Sad isn't it that in 2010 they willingly still participate in what Carter G. Woodson called ''the miseducation of the negro''. Sick to think they still are afflicted by what Franz Fanon termed ''black skin, white mask.'' Sick to still be, as E. Franklin Frazier said, ''black bourgeoisie.'' Sick to work to be, as Nathan Hare wrote, black anglo-saxons."
Who cares where CBS, NBC, ABC and CNN are? Wherever they are, they're taking care of their media business, their white agenda. Don't you have an agenda to take care of. If you do, please attend to it. If you don't, please get a black agenda. One that includes a black college or university for the higher education of our youth. How in the living world is this young lady going to find a ''home'' in a fundamentally historically racist institution part of a coalition of elitist institutions, the Ivy League? In reality, she is still ''homeless', only now it's intellectual, spritual, cultural and psychological homelessness.
The tragedy in this story is not hers alone. The tragedy is that every step of the way, every step of her way, the brainwash, the white-wash was going on, and apparently will continue for four more years at her new ''home''. Don't cry for her; cry for yourself. You just don't understand America, and from the likes of your commentary, never will.
This is such an inspirational story!
Where's NBC, ABC & CNN on This One?
Oh I forgot this is a feel good positive image building story out of the Black community. The press can only focus on if she was a pregnant teenage mother or high school drop-out or a tattooed tongue-pierced gang member the typical newsworthy story in keeping that negative image alive. This is a made for Hollywood story waiting to be put on film.
From Homeless to Harvard
20 Jun 2009 Author: rikyrah
hat tip: Anovelista
From the Los Angeles Times:
She finally has a home: Harvard
Khadijah Williams, 18, overcomes a lifetime in shelters and on skid row.
By Esmeralda Bermudez
11:03 PM PDT, June 19, 2009
Khadijah Williams stepped into chemistry class and instantly tuned out the commotion.
She walked past students laughing, gossiping, napping and combing one another's hair. Past a cellphone blaring rap songs. And past a substitute teacher sitting in a near-daze.
Quietly, the 18-year-old settled into an empty table, flipped open her physics book and focused. Nothing mattered now except homework.
"No wonder you're going to Harvard," a girl teased her.
Around here, Khadijah is known as "Harvard girl," the "smart girl" and the girl with the contagious smile who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago.
What students don't know is that she is also a homeless girl.
As long as she can remember, Khadijah has floated from shelters to motels to armories along the West Coast with her mother. She has attended 12 schools in 12 years; lived out of garbage bags among pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. Every morning, she upheld her dignity, making sure she didn't smell or look disheveled.
On the streets, she learned how to hunt for their next meal, plot the next bus route and help choose a secure place to sleep - survival skills she applied with passion to her education.
Only a few mentors and Harvard officials know her background. She never wanted other students to know her secret - not until her plane left for the East Coast hours after her Friday evening graduation.
"I was so proud of being smart I never wanted people to say, 'You got the easy way out because you're homeless,' " she said. "I never saw it as an excuse."
A drive to succeed
"I have felt the anger at having to catch up in school . . . being bullied because they knew I was poor, different, and read too much," she wrote in her college essays. "I knew that if I wanted to become a smart, successful scholar, I should talk to other smart people."
Khadijah was in third grade when she first realized the power of test scores, placing in the 99th percentile on a state exam. Her teachers marked the 9-year-old as gifted, a special category that Khadijah, even at that early age, vowed to keep.
"I still remember that exact number," Khadijah said. "It meant only 0.01 students tested better than I did."
In the years that followed, her mother, Chantwuan Williams, pulled her out of school eight more times. When shelters closed, money ran out or her mother didn't feel safe, they packed what little they carried and boarded buses to find housing in Los Angeles , San Francisco , Ventura , San Diego , San Bernardino and Orange County , staying for months, at most, in one place.
She finished only half of fourth grade, half of fifth and skipped sixth. Seventh grade was split between Los Angeles and San Diego . Eighth grade consisted of two weeks in San Bernardino .
At every stop, Khadijah pushed to keep herself in each school's gifted program.. She read nutrition charts, newspapers and four to five books a month, anything to transport her mind away from the chaos and the sour smell.
At school, she was the outsider. At the shelter, she was often bullied. "You ain't college-bound," the pimps barked. "You live in skid row!"
In 10th grade, Khadijah realized that if she wanted to succeed, she couldn't do it alone. She began to reach out to organizations and mentors: the Upward Bound Program, Higher Edge L.A., Experience Berkeley and South Central Scholars; teachers, counselors and college alumni networks. They helped her enroll in summer community college classes, gave her access to computers and scholarship applications and taught her about networking.
When she enrolled in the fall of her junior year at Jefferson High School , she was determined to stay put, regardless of where her mother moved. Graduation was not far off and she needed strong college letters of recommendation from teachers who were familiar with her work.
This soon meant commuting by bus from an Orange County armory. She awoke at 4 a.m. and returned at 11 p.m., and kept her grade-point average at just below a 4.0 while participating in the Academic Decathlon, the debate team and leading the school's track and field team.
"That's when I was really stressed," she says, at once sighing and laughing.
Khadijah graduated Friday evening with high honors, fourth in her class. She was accepted to more than 20 universities nationwide, including Brown, Columbia , Amherst and Williams. She chose a full scholarship to Harvard and aspires to become an education attorney.
Early adversity
She tried her best; she never smoked or drank, never did drugs, and she never put us in abusive situations. However, that was the best she could do.
There are questions about her mother Khadijah is not ready to ask, answers she is not ready to hear. How did her mother end up on the streets? How come she never found a stable home for her daughters? Why wasn't there family to turn to, no father, no grandparents? And what will become of her little sister?
"I don't know. I don't know," is often her response. Ask personal questions about her mother and the fire in Khadijah's eyes turns dim. She knows when she arrives in Cambridge , Mass. , she will need to seek counseling. So much of her life is a blur.
She knows she was born in Brooklyn , N.Y. , to a 14-year-old mother. She thinks Chantwuan might have been ostracized from her family. She may have tried to attend school, but the stress of a baby proved too much. When Khadijah was a toddler, they moved to California . A few years later, Jeanine was born.
She has chosen not to criticize her mother. Instead Khadijah said she inspired her to learn. "She would tell me I had a gift, she would call me Oprah."
When her college applications were due in December, James and Patricia London of South Central Scholars invited Khadijah to their home in Rancho Palos Verdes to help her write her essays.
When they went to return her to skid row, her mother and sister were gone.
Khadijah accepted the Londons ' invitation to spend the rest of her school year with them.
In their comfortable hilltop home, Khadijah learned a new set of lessons. The orthopedic doctor and nurse taught her table manners, money management and grooming.
She won't be the first homeless student to arrive at Harvard.
Julie Hilden, the Harvard interviewer who met with Khadijah to gauge whether she should be accepted, said it was clear from the start that Khadijah was a top candidate. But school officials had to make sure they could provide what she needed to make the transition successful.
They plan to connect her with faculty mentors and potentially, a host family to check in with every so often. She will also attend a Harvard summer program at Cornell to take college-prep courses.
"I strongly recommended her," Hilden said. "I told them, 'If you don't take her, you might be missing out on the next Michelle Obama. Don't make this mistake.' "
Seeking connections
"I think about how I can convince my peers about the value of education.. . . . I have found that after all the teasing, these peers start to respect me . . . . I decided that I could be the one to uplift my peers . . .. . My work is far reaching and never finished."
Khadijah expected to feel more connected after nearly two years at Jefferson , to make at least one good friend.
Students flock to the smart girl for help with homework and tests and class questions. She walks through campus tenderly waving and smiling and complimenting everyone she knows.
But when prom pictures arrive, they show her posing alone in a silky black and white dress. In her yearbook, hundreds of familiar faces look back, but the memories are missing.
"It's a nice, glossy, shiny, colorful yearbook," she said. "But it feels like they're all strangers. I'm nowhere in these pages."
In the last six months, she saw her mother only a few times and on Thursday tried to find her. Khadijah headed to a South-Central storage facility where they last stored their belongings.
She found Chantwuan sitting on a garbage bag full of clothes.
"Khadijah's here!" her sister Jeanine yells. Chantwuan's face lit up.
She explained the details of her graduation, the bus route to get there and gave her mother a prom picture. She said she would leave for summer school Friday.
There is no talk of coming home of for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Proudly, Khadijah modeled her hunter green graduation cap and gown and practiced switching the tassel from right to left as she would during the ceremony.
"Look at you," her mother says. "You're really going to Harvard, huh?"
"Yeah," she says, pausing. "I'm going to Harvard."
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Brooklyn's Finest - See It Twice
- A Film Review and Analysis -
by David Rambeau, projectbait.blakgold.net
Rarely do we get the opportunity to experience a black community and the forces that shape it in stark, creative, rhythmic images and voices as we do with the film, Brooklyn's Finest. From its opening scene we feel the tension and impending violence that drives this urban narrative to its dramatic, relentless conclusion.
Propelling the action are Don Cheadle, an undercover cop, and Wesley Snipes, a drug dealer, who have bonded through companionship and adversity despite conflicting allegiances, one to the "law", the other to the ''streets''. Running an explosive counterpoint to them on the white cop side of the equation are Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke. All of these principals are caught up in social forces: family, police corruption and discrimination, narcotics trafficking, racism, prostitution, alienation and personal disintegration, that confront them, overpower them, and finally, destroy them.
Cornerstones of this production are Antoine Fuqua, director, Michael C. Martin, writer and Pat Murguia, cinematographer, though each technician involved in the production does a masterful job.
While Brooklyn's Finest utilizes the film media I suggest it would be equally well served in the novel form and on stage. In the former the narrative could be expanded, and in the latter the melodrama could be recreated with a different cast and production crew who could vary the interpretation of the script and the interaction with the audience.
If neophytes to the movie business want to learn about film-making they should study this film till they can see it in their sleep. Actors should simply watch Cheadle and Snipes run their lines like musicians practice scales. Other scenes with Gere and Shannon Kane, particularly the putdown scene, match Cheadle and Snipes in quality of performance and also deserve special attention. No wonder the leading actors took pay cuts to perform. They knew a good thing going in.
See this film, then see it again.
And from another perspective. After seeing the film I went on the Internet to check the reviews. Given my enthusiastic response, I wanted to read how others evaluated the movie. To my surprise the reviews were overwhelmingly negative. After a few moments of thought I began to suspect why.
The majority of white folks can't stand to see white cops, particularly white ethnic cops depicted at the same corrupt, violent, pathetic level as black drug dealers. They can't stand to see one of their heroes, a (white) ladies' man, Richard Gere, dissed by a black prostitute, and then being told to wait till one of his black fellow police officers finishes his business with the fine, sensual whore, who doubtlessly aroused them while they were watching the movie, and who would have told them to wait too. And they know they would have waited in the hall, right behind Gere for their turn. They can't handle this, this loss of power and control, the capacity to do what they want to and against black people whenever they want to.
But there it all was, crashing their psyches, up on the big screen, also beyond their control, and they paid $10 to be humiliated in their seats and bear the humiliation for more than two hours. All they could do to get even was pan the film even though they know they enjoyed it, its violence, its energy, its intensity, its sensuality, its manliness. Whitey hates that shit.
What he also hates is Barack Obama being President of the United States of America, O. J. Simpson being acquitted, Sam Riddle getting a hung jury, blacks dominating professional sports, Serena Williams kicking little white girls' butts on the tennis courts, Tiger Woods running around on his white wife while living on a Florida estate. He also hates A-rabs blowing them up during 9-11 and in Iraq and Afghanistan every day. He hates Hispanics having all these babies so that colored folks will be the majority in this country before you know it. He hates this shit. It's got his mind all messed up. Besides that, he's out of work, getting food from the community pantry and begging for welfare just like a nigger.
He sees institutions, long believed to be his, double-crossing him: the Catholic Church, its priests fondling children, the Senate and House arguing and not getting anything done, then bailing out the banks while bankers leech millions from the system while he goes without health insurance.
It's alright to him when racist white cops shoot blacks, Amadou Diallo and Sean Bell in NYC. It's a tragedy when a black drug dealer lights up a white cop as in Brooklyn's Finest. It's ok to take away black people's right to vote for members of the Detroit Board of Education, or for them to get disparate sentences for drug dealing. But if white cops, Butzen and Nevers, get convicted of beating a black man, Malice Green, to death, it's a miscarriage of justice, so in retaliation he takes away the local (urban) Detroit court. That's why Whitey is so upset about Brooklyn's Finest; they're not so fine (e.g. honest, triumphant, virtuous, and omnipotent). No mythic super heroes in Brooklyn's Finest. No Lone Ranger, no Shane, no Elliott Ness. Just some low-life losers, and he can't abide that, not in real life and not in the movies.
Go see for yourself. Then draw your own conclusions about "Brooklyn's Finest".
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For more about the writer access: youtube.com/projectbaitdet, or timbooktu.com, or projectbait.blakgold.net
Detroit Just Like Port au Prince
by David Rambeau
In the 70s Gil Scott Heron in one of his lyrics sang, "Detroit just like Johannesburg." His was a political analysis. He also said, "The revolution will not be televised." It is being televised, on cable television and the Internet. Times change.
Today we can say, "Detroit just like Port au Prince." Mine is a social or cultural analysis, which includes politics and economics. No doubt the devastation in Detroit is comparatively smaller in size, elongated instead of instant, a 50 year end of an era instead of an earthquake, but still quite similar.
In Detroit the homeless measure about 10,000 persons instead of one million as in Port au Prince. Here 100,000 people have lost their electricity and water over the last five years; 50% are unemployed in Detroit compared to perhaps 85% in Port au Prince, all indices of a difference in quantity, but not in the quality of the social catastrophe. So if we talk about Haiti, we talk about Detroit. If we understand black Haiti, we understand black Detroit, Highland Park, Flint, Pontiac, Chicago, and New York.
When we see the tv news programs, we see row upon row of collapsed buildings and people milling in the street. But we never hear in-depth comments or analysis about why this happened. Where are the interviews with the architects, the builders, the seismologists? Where are the interviews and analysis from Haitians, from Haitian-Americans? Why would the UN occupy a 5 story cinder block building built on an earthquake faultline? Whoever made that decision should go to jail for 20 years. People were rescued from a five story super-market. Why would anyone build a 5 story building without reinforced structures? Why did the walls fall out into the street instead of inside the stores or houses?
What is needed now, and in the past, is low technology. They (and we) need brooms and shovels and plastic bags to clean up the debris. They need picks and rakes and sledge hammers and wheel barrows to demolish damaged buildings and to haul the concrete piles away. They don't need the large trucks, the earth-movers, the steam shovels. They need to put one million people to work with low tech tools and machines rather than have a few huge machines brought in to do 99% of the clean-up and reconstruction, while one million unemployed, idle people stand around and watch.
They need their own indigenous architects, builders and inspectors to design low tech one-story buildings with ample courtyard space that takes into consideration the after-shocks and the next earthquake that is inevitably coming, as well as the coming hurricanes. They need defensive construction in tune with nature.
They need security. The U.S has sent in 9,000 troops. Over a half century ago Marcus Garvey asked where is the blackman's army? He could ask the same question today, and get much the same answer. Where are the black medical professionals from the U. S. (40 million Afro-Americans), Brazil (90 million Afro-Brazilians), Haiti (10 million Afro-Haitians), the Dominican Republic (10 million Afro-Dominicans)? There are more Haitians practicing medicine in the U.S. than in Haiti. Why?
They need food, and yet I have never seen any video that relates to their farms, plantations or fisheries. They need water and yet they are part of an island surrounded by water. How does this occur? We offer prayers when they need plastic water jugs. They can pray for themselves.
They need sustainable development, production and distribution; they need trade as well as aid. They will need food, water, medical supplies, doctors, dentists, architects, builders and more for the foreseeable future. Have you considered this? Has anyone? And recognize that long-term aid from any entity regularly includes self-interest and exploitation. Nevertheless, do what you are interested in and capable of doing. Some jugglers can keep three balls aloft. Others can handle a dozen. Do what you can; it's all good.
Haiti needs energy and yet I have seen no mention of solar or wind or bio-fuel production. At one time the island had huge sugar cane plantations that today could produce all the bio-fuel the island would need, much like Brazil is doing. Why in what was France's richest colony are the people now the poorest in the hemisphere? Why in black Detroit which was the richest internal colony in the U.S. are the people now the poorest in the nation?
When you watch tv what do you see? What do you hear? What do you understand? Study the video; study its contents. Analyze the comments, the innuendos. Consider and compare, for example, the temporary shelter (tents), the clothing the people wear (or don't wear), the absence of experimental architecture instead of just cinder block construction found everywhere. Notice every detail. Consider them as process, not merely as end results.
Detroit hasn't had cataclysmic natural phenomena, (I don't consider them disasters) to disrupt the civilization (unless you include water, land and air pollution and climate change). We've had social phenomena of a cataclysmic nature: the exodus of the auto industry, automation, robotics, drugs, institutional gambling, incinerators, financial institutional fraud, organized crime and corrupt and inept government. The results have been much the same: wide-spread poverty, unemployment, family disintegration, ill-health, population migration, abandoned and dilapidated buildings, and government deficits. While we look at Port au Prince we ought also to look at ourselves.
David Rambeau
propjectbait.blakgold.net
youtube.com - projectbaitdet (in search box)
dbtcaf.com
afrobrazilamerica.com
199 - An Academic Exam For Urban Students From the NAEP (Negroes Ain't Educationally Proficient) Organization
by David Rambeau
As you may know, over the past few years a national testing firm has assessed educational progress in about 20 U. S. cities including many with large black student enrollments. (see Internet search engines for detailed results) Blacks have not obtained high scores on these exams and recently the students in Detroit Public Schools got the lowest grade ever, a 199, on a math test.
The test-giving officials were "shocked" at these results, and flew in from out of town to tell us that. Local reaction was immediate and profound from every source imaginable. A leading Detroit parents organization at an annual membership meeting recommended the jailing of the math teachers responsible for this debacle. Attendees at the dinner downtown stood up and cheered this demand. To date we have not heard any response, (e. g. no establishment of a legal defense fund, etc.) protests or picketing from Detroit's math teachers concerning their pending incarceration, but we will be happy to make a report to you when they do.
In the meanwhile to meet the need for remedial action we have formed a parallel testing modality to practice and promote academic excellence in the African-American community nation-wide. We also go by the initials NAEP, but our initials stand for Negroes Ain't Educationally Proficient.
Our premier test is provided without solicitation from the Financial Overseer of the Detroit Public School System, the Detroit Board of Education, black community leaders, (who were also shocked, dismayed, bewildered, confused, dumbfounded and defensive about the math test results) or the parents group that suggested prison sentences for the teaching challenged.
The NAEP Urban-Oriented, Social Studies Test Questions:
1. Can the notorious Sam Riddle, defendant with multiple charges in a Detroit bribery case, get a fair trial in the U. S. Federal District Court in Detroit? True - False - Maybe yes - Maybe no?
2. Sam Riddle, the elder activist, political lobbyist and media analyst, will be found guilty because...
a. the judge is prejudiced against him
b. he won't have a jury of his peers
c. he's a scapegoat for the federal judicial system
d. he's an uppity, loud-mouthed negro
e. all of the above
3. No Synagro Technologies, Inc. executives in the bribery scandal in Detroit have been indicted because....
a. they're rich
b. they're white
c. they're republicans
d. they're males
e. all of the above
4. The Innocence Project has won the release of a number of incarcerated, innocent men who were proven innocent through DNA testing. Those proven innocent have been overwhelmingly,
a. native american
b. hispanic
c. white
d. black
5. The longest imprisonment of an innocent black man in the U. S. so far has been....
a. 3 minutes
b. 20 years
c. 35 years
d. 100 years
6. The State of Illinois stopped capital punishment because.....
a. it wanted to conserve electricity
b. its electric chair wore out
c. it ran out of negroes to electrocute
d. the Innocence Project found so many inmates on death row who were not guilty
7. The City of Detroit is over $300 million in debt and recently borrowed $250 million in tax anticipation bonds. To meet this fiscal disaster the 9 member Detroit City Clowncil should cut its salary .....
a. 10%
b. 25%
c. 50%
You have 10 seconds to answer. Wrong! They should cut their salaries by 100% like Mayor David Bing cut his salary and donate their combined salaries to those who have had, or are going to have, their heat, water or electricity turned off. Or to the 20,000 homeless people in Detroit, or to the orphans in Haiti. We at NAEP, negroes ain't educationally proficient, believe in trick questions and trick answers.
8. This light skin brother (not Barack Obama) went to apply for a job. He had a Ph. D., an MBA, an M.D. and an LLB. He took the written test and passed with flying colors. (No pun intended.) They took him into a small room and sat him at a table and told him to get ready for his oral exam. A zen master entered the room and asked the first question in Chinese, the second in Japanese and the third in Korean? Then the master got up, bowed and left the room. What was the non-Ebonics, articulate response the light skin brother gave to the questions?
Ans. - It looks like I'm not qualified for this job either.
9. Another light skin brother (still not Barack Obama) with similar credentials took the same written test and he also passed. But he knew what had happened to the other black man at the oral exam, so he mastered Chinese, Japanese and Korean? When he went into the room for his oral exam he found a note on the table. What did it read?
Answer: Unemployment in Detroit is 50%. Did you really think we had a job for you? Our corporate headquarters has been moved to Japan, the factory to China, supplies will come from Mexico, oil from the Middle East, raw materials from Africa and the financial capital from European Union banks and sovereign wealth funds. And now a security officer will escort your light skin behind off the premises.
If you wish to take our next test, check out our website: projectbait.blakgold.net or youtube.com - projectbaitdet (in search box). But, in the meanwhile, send us your answers to the questions #1 - #6. You may also submit test questions to the NAEP for inclusion in our next exam c/o projectbait.blakgold.net or youtube.com - projectbaitdet.
Peace out. All questions courtesy of NAEP, Negroes Ain't Educationally Proficient, an equal opportunity, academic testing, afro-centric organization. Any similarity to any other test or procedure, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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William Amos
Kareen Baker
Artinia Barnes
Jima Braynon
Earnice Bright
Invictor Brooks
Gregory A. Brown
Vincent Bryant
Arthur Cobb
Corwin Ferguson
Toni Fontana
Matthew Harden
Cedric Hendricks
Katrina Henry
Victor Hill
Heather Johnson
Flora Jones
Dorothy King
Valerie Lane
Willie McLeod
William Nelson
Henrietta Nix
Anna Perry
Cheryl Pouncy
Claire Rambeau
David Rambeau
Gary Roquemore
Ken Riley
Ron Scott
Tracy Shields
Deborah Snead
Larry Taylor
Aisha Walker
Joe Williams
Kim Williams
Lawrence X
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Project BAIT - Black Awareness In Television |
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| Project BAIT - Black Awareness In Television |
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To: All Theater People
100 copies of the Urban Theater Magazine, Premiere Edition, are available for you and your team at fund-raising wholesale prices. The cost is $150 cash and carry. These you can sell for $3 each and recoup your investment and make a profit. Moreover, you can insert a flyer in the magazine to promote your business, political or religious interests.
For more info on the UTM access our website: projectbait.blakgold.net or call: David Rambeau 313-871-3333 RSVP.
In addition we are calling for articles, 1,000 - 1,500 words, for our next edition. RSVP.
To discuss these and other theater matters attend one of our weekly workshop meetings, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. at Louie's Deli on Mack & Riopelle. RSVP
The Urban Theater Magazine is seeking performing arts articles (theater, film, television and radio) and original theater poster designs for its next edition. For detailed info check out our website: projectbait.blakgold.net and email your query to davidrambeau@hotmail.com or call 313-871-3333. Thanks.
Urban Theater Magazine Get it while you can
because soon they will be a collector's items and double in price. Use them to train your theater group members. Each article is worthy of discussion. When you have an audition you can sell copies and hold a discussion. When you have a show, you can sell copies. Raise funds and re-enforce your audience.
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August 2008
The DCAF Minutes – Saturday Session, 2 August 08
By David Rambeau, coordinator, writer, organizer, communicator
• We met Saturday at B&Bs 4200 Woodward corner of Willis, starting at 2 p.m. and continued till 6 p.m. covering a range of topics. We got into a discussion of love poems and asked that folk who attend next Saturday compose and present a lyric, poem, song or story on love. A bit off track, but why not…after we finish our business.
• Kim – brought and discussed her film. We discussed her premiering her work at the Manoogian Hall at WSU during the C&F. She also indicated that she does graphics, so I asked her to do a DCAF poster design for us. She also brought her laptop, she’s online, and brought her camcorder. If you can, please do the same. She taped us, and I hope she will edit and post them under TDMP, Thedamu Presents… on the Internet.
• Mama Rice – brought her remarks to the discussion.
• Eddie – brought his remarks to the discussion. We need him to follow up w/ his graphic designer, and follow up on the theater management proposal we’re working on, and w/ D.vine re our Black Stages annual report, and on fund-raising.
• Chris – did some important networking with Dione Saturday. You should network too. We look forward to his next edition of MBIG which we hope will include some data on the DCAF.
• David – always outreaching for skilled people to participate in the DCAF and you should too. We need more local theater and design talent and energy. We meet again next Saturday at 2 p.m. at B&Bs. Bring a friend.
• TP – discussed the progress on his production at Bert’s. He’ll need a lot of design input. I hope designers of all stripes are getting ready to step forward to work on theater productions. He also provided a graphic designer, Carole Wagner, to contact.
• Dione – volunteered another graphic designer referral. Please get a poster holder and bring your poster for all to see. You’re scheduled to do an FMP spot re your poster and the DCAF. We also need you to begin to look at developing the DCAF poster for next year. (As we need all graphic designers to begin to look forward to next year’s DCAF poster)
• Nicholas – a student and potential graphic designer offered his remarks at our session.
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• Others not at our Saturday Session
• Shakaira – offered to contact another potential graphic designer to design an a DCAF poster
• Nix – called in
• D’vine – needs to contact Eddy about paying our annual Black Stages fee
Eddy and I have made an offer to a venue for a theater management arrangement. We’ll keep you posted on the outcome.
Projection – it will take 3 years or three Septembers for us to work out the kinks, to learn how to produce the DCAF. We have a planner’s vision or journey. This is only our first year. It takes practice, practice, practice, and that takes time, time, time.
Caution: Beware of anybody trying to run an email scam on you for funds using my email address. Someone has stolen my password to davidrambeau@hotmail.com and has been contacting people to send them money. Beware.
Graphic designers. Bring your work to show it, to sell it. Get a poster case. D’vine, Dione, Greg, and all other g/d’s.
Potential videographers for the DCAF. Kim Rice, Will Amos, George Williamson, Deborah Snead, and you.
Communication. The Saturday sessions develop the bonding process, help us to learn names, network, break bread together, get acquainted with one another and brain-storm. They have both a formal and informal value. After the business discussion, I was involved in a Pinteresque situation. One person was talking opposite me when another person erupted with words in my right ear. Sometimes they talked consecutively, sometimes simultaneously. I listened to both of them, sometimes consecutively, sometimes simultaneously. At times I held another conversation with someone on my left. If they noticed, they didn’t object. This went on for quite a while as the length of the session described. And so we enjoyed the afternoon. Maybe next week I’ll try four narrators. All on different topics. That might be a challenge.
Plan ahead. In 2009 the third weekend is 18, 19, 20, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Check a 2009 calendar.
Monday – C McFarland came to the studio and purchased a couple of Black Masks mags. I still have a few left, and Neh Pitts may have some. $3 apiece.
Kelly Salaam, of Artists Village, called in and volunteered some names of graphic designers, and also expressed interest in attending our next session. We still interested in bringing folk aboard. Chazz Miller of the Artist Village emailed in and has beeninvited to the next session.
Rose Enlow- called in and offered a VHS camcorder for sale for $60. I invited her to the session Saturday.
Will Amos - chillwill121@aol.com - said he would work on a poster design.
William Meredith III - of Meredith Publishing, agreed to refer graphic designers he knows.
We're getting there.
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July 2008
The DCAF Minutes - Saturday, 26 July 08
by David Rambeau - writer, organizer, coordinator, communicator
Site. We met at Beans & Bytes from 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. and will continue to meet weekly till the c&f in September. For those who can't meet
Saturday, I go to B&Bs Sundays from 2 - 4 to accommodate schedules. You don't have to stay for an entire 2 hours, simply come in and
get an in-person update, which may take only 10 - 20 minutes. Or stay and discuss other projects you're working on or interested in.
Or, if you can't stop, wave as you pass by.
For graphic designers. We have set the design for next year's poster. We want to use the outline of the bait logo, substituting the globe in the top circle, and the masks of comedy and tragedy in the bottom cirlces. We've also accumulated the names of 50 designers to contact to participate this year and next. We intend to send out an urban design network newsletter to our design list, so please submit data on designers who work in any format. Theater needs various forms of design, and producers need multiple contacts.
We're also still working on having an exhibition of the DCAF posters, as well as other theater posters developed by theater groups. We need about 20 items to display and then tour to other cities. We'll also entertain the use and display of kicker cards or items smaller than posters. I talked to Delano White, B&Bs owner, about our doing an exihibit at the cafe.
Vince and Sanders Bryant - are committed to working on a poster design. We need an update from everybody who's working on a design.
Dione Robinson - got his design put on poster board at Staples. It looks great. Next, we want to do an interview with him for TDMP...
for cable (Carl Sample - producer) and a 20 second spot on FMP.
Greg Brown has made the copy corrections for his poster design. His next steps are the same as Dione's.
Caution: Beware of Internet scam artists trying to use my name, email address or the DCAF's name to solicit money.
The Urban Theater Magazine. Mark Wells was put in contact with Hiram Hilliard 313-618-1257, re printing, collating and stapling
his 4-page entry in the magazine. You should also make contact with Hilliard. We need 16 pages or 4 sheets to be printed, collated and stapled. Cost is apportioned over the number of participants. When we publish you will receive 100 copies to recoup expenses. Make sure you have two (2) proof-readers check your copy before submitting your copy to Hilliard, and a proofreader after he does the layout.
Modality. We're operating on a decentralized basis. Everybody should know what their tasks are and move to follow-through and report in. If you need help, bring your comments to the session. Our agenda stays the same from week to week. The minutes you receive for
updates. Or use the telephone if you need more attention. We are trying to keep paperwork to a minimum.
Productions. Lawrence X discussed his prod planned for the ICSC, T. P. Coleman discussed his prod planned for Bert's, and Ron Ayers
discussed plans and story concepts for his prod. Our list of designers may help you with the design of your production.
Webmaster - Doug Doyle discussed his thoughts about improving the bait website - urban theater folder, and the development of
projectbait.org another separate or second site which will be devoted to theater and design audio and video.
Supplies. Please bring your laptop or digital camera, or video camera to our sessions so we can record and communicate data via the Internet and on cable.
Perspective. The DCAF is a roll-off-the-log process which asks those who already possess the capacity or skill to plan, produce and synchronize a production or design for one weekend with the DCAF. That means about 10 people in each of 10 theater productions, about 10 graphic designers, and about 10 staff people to coordinate our efforts to produce an end resut which will be greater than the sum of its parts. We're beyond the rhetoric stage; we're at the results stage. When you come to our Saturday or Sunday session, please be ready to discuss your production. Thanks.
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A Tribute To Two Elders - July 2008
Held at the Alkebulan Village on Detroit's Eastside
peacequickly!
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Special thanks to Lawrence X, Mike Anderson, Marvis Cofield, Madison Martin, Jr., Chris Woodard, Barbara Anderson, Tim Moore, Paul Taylor, Queen Mother Osun Dara, Hen Nix, Tipi, Ayo Hunter, Brother Bryan and all those who helped make the event possible.
Detroit, The Virtual City
by David Rambeau
Make no mistake this metaphor is not intended to apply to computers. This metaphor applies to the shifts, the disappearance, or the reality of the political and economic power of the City of Detroit and its black residents. Plain and simple.
The thought at one time, in the 70s, was that urban areas also known as cities could and would be economically, politically and culturally controlled by black people as we attained majority numbers and elected mayors, council people and other officials. That was the overt posture of the Black Power Movement, if not the Civil Rights Movement.
Now, in 2008, we see that another picture has emerged and continues emerging. Each year it becomes clearer. Detroit, which has the largest percentage of black people in the top 100 cities in the United States, about 85% African-American, is a good example of what’s happening nation-wide. Washington, D. C., another city with a large black population is under-going the same fate.
Small cities with substantial black populations that have rotted or declined include Gary, Indiana, Flint and Highland Park, Michigan. There are others. There is no reason with globalization, the drug trade, the high educational dropout (causing a 47% adult functional illiteracy rate in Detroit) and incarceration rate, the international competition for cheap, unskilled labor, racism, the deindustrialization of the United States, and black self-hate for anything to change for the better, except for the process of urban decline to continue or accelerate.
To recognize the change we need only to observe and review the process of change of those agencies that have gone from city control or face pending endangerment. They include:
The Detroit Institute of the Arts, the Detroit Historical Museum, the Children’s Museum, the Detroit Zoo, Eastern Market, Campus Martius, the Detroit River Front Conservancy, the Jazz Festival, the Art Festival. Have I missed any? Many of these are located in the Cultural Center in Midtown Detroit where black folks are included as an afterthought or something to be tolerated opr marginalized because of an overwhelming numerical presence.
Downtown Detroit has long since departed to the Downtown Development Authority, a separate tax district where blacks may own and operate a dozen buildings, if not fewer.
Additional Independent agencies include: the Detroit Public Library supported by a separate millage, the Detroit Public Schools, which is seriously threatened by charter schools and an exodus of students, supported by a separate millage and other federal funds. Meanwhile virtually all of the large building contracts, the textbooks and food service is provided by large corporations.
Going, already gone, or never controlled: the Federal Government – HUD, which finances senior and low-income housing, Work First job training programs, Social Security; to Wayne County – the sheriffs, and the Road Commission
In the area of Transportation – SMART, the urban/suburban bus-line, which will one day takeover DDOT, the Detroit Department of Transportation.
Health Care – the mega hospitals – the Detroit Medical Center, (DMC), and Henry Ford Hospital
Spiritual & Social Development – Mega churches, tax exempt and independent, supported by tithing and with separate programs and clerical leadership, and in a better position ideologically to unify a group or community of believers and produce a community-based program.
The main streets are controlled by the Feds, the freeways, and Wayne County, the major streets, and the State
The Water System, the Detroit Department of Water & Sewerage, has been under federal oversight for the last 20 years or so, and may one day shift to a regional authority if mandated by the State. The DW&SD is the real Detroit jewel that the suburbs covet.
The Tunnel to to Windsor, Canada. The Mayor wants to make the transfer of Detroit's half to a public authority to plug a multi-million dollar hole in the current budget, so if not this year, then maybe the next.
Cobo Hall, the river-front convention center, with a budget deficit of $20 mill a year and steadily deteriorating, to a regional authority encompassing Wayne County, Oakland County, Macomb County, and maybe Windsor and the State of Michigan.
Banks, mortgage companies, and speculators control housing through sub-prime mortgage foreclosures which engulf most of the housing stock.
Insurance companies (home, auto, health, personal) which drain income from Detroit residents like a sewer. What they don’t get the casinos and their symbiotic cohorts, the pawn shops, do.
These are the prime takeover agencies : the Feds, Wayne County, Public Authorities, Windsor, mega churches, Regional Authorities, the State, tax capture districts, agencies and mega-sized state and national corporations.
Soon the city parks may go, Belle Isle, Palmer Park, Chandler Park, and Rouge Park, the major parks, to the Huron-Clinton Park Authority, to Wayne County, or to the State to cover Detroit's annual budget deficits and facility upkeep.
Population exodus is expected to cause the population to contract from 900,000 currently, 2008, to 700,000 in the next 20 years.
Research. What little is being done by the Feds, the universities and hospitals.
Education - by community colleges supported by a separate millage, and universities by the State.
Basic income – SSI, Social Security, pensions from the Feds, and auto companies.
Communication – the Internet, daily newspapers, television stations radio stations – all privately owned.
The Judicial system – Wayne County, the State, the Feds.
Incarceration – the State, Wayne County, the Feds. Even local Detroit lockups are under a federal monitor.
Gas stations, (except for a handful) liquor stores and super-markets (with two exceptions) are owned by Middle Easterners. The only people they hire is family, except for security and trash pick-up.
What will Detroit retain? The 6,000 churches which provide 30% of the black males over the age of 40 with the titles: deacon, reverend, bishop or cardinal. We'll probably have a black pope in Detroit before we'll have a black president for the nation. One politician actually got his first name changed to "Reverend" so it would appear that way on the ballot.
Resembling a Third World city, or neo-colony, Detroit, in the private sector, looks like Denmark at the top and Congo at the bottom. We may keep the neighborhood streets, street lights, garbage collection, police and fire. For the moment. And you and me.
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David Rambeau is the director of Project BAIT. For more information access the website: projectbait.blakgold.net. Comments or questions to: davidrambeau@hotmail.com
The Urban Theater Magazine
May 2008
We are looking for free-lance journalists nation-wide to write 1 - 2 page magazine articles w/ relevant pics
for an entertainment trade journal with a limited, focused circulation. Inquiries by phone - 313-871-3333
or via email would be appreciated. Background on project is posted on our website: projectbait.blakgold.net.
Can you help us?
Regards,
David Rambeau
The Urban Theater Magazine Notes – April 2008
By David Rambeau
The cast of the UTM is working on its Premiere Edition bi-weekly Saturdays from 2 – 4 p.m. We had about a dozen people at our last session, 19 April, and had a lively discussion for about 2 hours. Muka Miyzaan took minutes which she will send to our current email list. If you want to have them sent to some of your contacts, please let her know and I’m sure she’ll oblige.
We are defined by the three boundaries of our name. Our focus is urban, and on the creative and expansive practice of theater; our media is the magazine format. Urban is a global form of social organization. Urban areas, cities and suburbs, exist in all nations throughout the world with people who are, metaphorically speaking, polka dot, plaid, striped, paisley, herringbone, seersucker, denim and more. We want them all. We want to explore theater wherever venues and productions are found.
The UTM will use the magazine format. We will also use television (Thedamu presents…will be the cable show) and the Internet (projectbait.blakgold.net will be the website). The magazine media format requires that we utilize writers who are committed to putting words on paper in a focused, concise manner. And we want you, our participants, to be involved not only in the writing, but also in the layout, the underwriting, distribution, promotion and the sale of the UTM. Join us for our bi-weekly Saturday sessions.
Our premiere edition will have a limited press run of 1,500 copies and will retail for $3 per copy. Another edition will go to press in three months or so. Because we will have a limited press run, we urge you to put in your order today for 10 copies or 100.
People tend to come to our sessions with a whole lot of ideas, mouth and attitude. What I wish they brought was more skills, experience, money and consistency. But such is life. We listen to them for a session or two, and then they don’t come back…probably because they run out of big ideas, and finally realize that some of us know what we’re doing and are not going to pull their oar for them. With, or without them, we’re pressing on, moving forward. If you think you can fit in, c’mon. We have a collective social responsibility, so we share a creative opportunity. Join us.
FYI: Writers, Theater People
This week Mark Trevae submitted the first and second draft and graphics of his article on Afro-Brazilian Theater, and Jacinta Shanae submitted the first draft of her first article, and been assigned two additional articles for the premier edition of the Urban Theater Magazine. Saundra Harris and Angela Raby have also submitted their first drafts of articles. Penazer Ellison is exploring an article on theater in New Orleans, while Muqarrabah Miyzann has been assigned an article.
You, too, can be a part of this edition. We urge you to email your first draft to me asap. Articles need to be read, discussed and synchronized in our bi-weekly sessions for us to have a successful process. Every hand is expected to be on deck to pull an oar (write, critique, layout, illustrate, underwrite, and distribute the UTM).
We have a limited number of pages, so we're operating on the basis of ''first come, first served''.
We want articles which will be timely, as well as have value a year from now, and as a portrait of the time, ten years from today.
We are documenting theater history; we are editing and publishing your legacy. We are asking writers and theater people to do what they do best: tell their story to an interested audience, and be a part of a collective process.
The UTM is supposed to deepen the theater experience, to give the reader something to hold on to. A flyer or kicker card has a shelf life of 20 seconds. Magazines or journals become mementos or collectibles.
Won't you cast yourself or your group in our production, the Urban Theater Magazine. And since you may know of theater groups, or theater people who might be interested in this opportunity, please pass this message on.
Regards,
David Rambeau
Editor & Publisher
313-871-3333
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Urban Theater Magazine
Interest groups (sports, hobbies, professions, crafts, organizations, etc.) have publications which promote their vocations, avocations, hobbies or interests.
Check the magazine racks of any chain or community bookstore for their diversity of publications. So in this and other cities, we need a publication to analyze, promote, critique, document and archive urban theater in all its various forms and skills.
We want to do this with an Urban Theater Magazine (UTM). We ask for your constructive participation. We want theater groups, venues and practitioners (actors, directors, writers, producers, technicians and teachers) to play an active role in our process through discussion via email, writing articles, distributing copies, advertising, and use of the UTM as a teaching and marketing tool.
As you know there's fierce competition for the entertainment patron or dollar in the marketplace. One way to help you retain your marketshare is to deepen the theater experience. Let us help you with your process.
Contact us at 313-871-3333 for more information. Or access our website: projectbait.blakgold.net, or email:davidrambeau@hotmail.com. Thanks.
David Rambeau, Editor & Publisher
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Project:
The Organizing Committee of the Project BAIT Theater Support Program invites you to our bi-weekly meetings Saturdays, (upcoming sessions: 22 March and 5 April, and 19 April and 4 May 2008) at 2 p.m. at Beans & Bytes Coffeehouse, 4200 Woodward @ Willis. FMI 313-871-3333
Please bring a spiral notebook and pen to take notes during our discussion and get your assignment. Or, if you have one, bring your laptop computer, a digital camera, your audiotape recorder, or videorecorder to tape the session for communication and archival purposes.
The sessions may be videotaped for airing on Thedamu Presents....on local cable and diverse Internet outlets. For more information check our website, or call 313-871-3333.
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The African Report
with Lawrence X
David Rambeau: Project B.A.I.T. news analysis, The African Report, with Lawrence X. This is a special edition because we will be talking about African-Liberation Day Celebration.
Lawrence X: David, you know it is a honor, privilege and pleasure to be involved in Project B.A.I.T. in terms of our African world view. We would like to say “Long Live the Spirit of Saint Malcolm X”, also known as El Haj Malik El-Shabazz. The Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey in his Essay on African fundamentalism states we must canonize our own saints. We in Project B.A.I.T. feel if there is anyone who popularized critical analysis it is St. Malcolm X and we refer to his speeches that were delivered in Detroit, such as Message to the Grassroots and Ballots or Bullets. We are showing our age here because they were popular, selling millions of what we call LP’s (long playing records), so it demonstrated that our people enjoyed critical analysis.
David Rameau: Why is this important today, that is the celebration and recognition of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X. Garvey had 90 years of support of African Liberation. This ancestor pushed Africa for the Africans both Home and Abroad, way before Roots, before internet, television, radio and St. Malcolm in terms of critical analysis.
As we look at African Liberation Day coming up May 25th with our celebration in Detroit May 23rd, 24th and 25th, it is amazing, if you go or anyone goes to the website africanliberationday.net sponsored by All African People’s Revolutionary Party we associate with out ancestor Kwame Toure, you will get a sense of ten African countries supporting African Liberation Day; two cities in the United Kingdom – Birmingham and London; Kingston, Jamaica; Virgin Island; ten US cities; Argentina; Brazil; Madrid, Spain, all involved in African Liberation Day. It is no joke. It is thousands upon thousands of brothers and sisters coming together. Also in these hard economic times everyone agrees that emerging markets is where to get a return on investments. So we say that African Liberation support is an investment and not a donation and when we look at it like that it opens up tremendous possibilities for our future.
David Rambeau: Could you go into more details on this investment concept as opposed to the donation concept and what is means psychologically for our community.
Lawrence X: A sister out of Portland State University in 2003 wrote a piece called “Posttraumatic Slave Disorder” off of the PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder). But to look at it from a slave disorder looked at so many of our problems, that for hundreds of years in this country we were conditioned to be anti-family. We were conditioned not to respect each other. And just because we moved out of the slave cycle, it ended in 1979 in terms of 1619 to 1979, we still carry that baggage. So many of our young people born after 1980 carry that baggage, it was just passed down. So if for no other reason when we talk about reparations, we don’t go like Black Man Rutherford when he sings about reparation, a Coupe de Ville and a house on a hill, we are speaking of first and foremost internal repair. I mean the whole question of dealing with African Liberation Day is a jump off of us seriously dealing with internal repair. Just like we in Project B.A.I.T. are having a post ALD program on May 31st, which you will hear more about it and when you add the Afro-Cubans, the Afro-Haitians, the Afro-Brazilians, the brothers and sisters on the continent, when we deal with Africans born in slave American, we can look at a lot of problems. We just want to go here, there and everywhere quickly. When we analyze the City Hall scandal, it is around the question that technology is value free but we cannot afford to be. We must have core values. So when we look at internal repair aspects that African Liberation Day gives us a jump off point that we concretely get into the street and we start being serious about applying that which we believe in, it is very, very helpful. No African-centered person should be attacking another African-centered person after St .Malcolm’s day. I mean one thing that we get out of his critical analysis is that we need to calm down, take a deep breath and cease fire on each other.
David Rambeau: You mention all of these places around the world that are participating in African Liberation Day. Can you give us a little bit more detail in terms of what is happening on the ground and what is happening overseas or in the diaspora affect of here in the City of Detroit.
Lawrence X: Thank you for the question. Let go to Washington DC. May 24th All African People’s Revolutionary Party is having their ALD. The quote is from Kwame Toure and I am paraphrasing, ALD is just another day that we can organize our people. The next day the African People’s Socialist Party is having their ALD program at Thurgood Marshall Center in Washington DC. To get to your point, their slogan is Revisiting Ballots or Bullets, Is Barack Obama Black Power. That alone is an interesting question that we need to pursue in the City of Detroit for a number of reasons. We look at Barack Obama now; because he has problems with the white working class vote, he is now speaking of his mama, his grandmamma, his father-in-law but dropping the piece about father from Kenya. So it is an important question to look at in terms of personality or program as we move forward going towards the November election. So Washington DC, their slogan is important. We in the City of Detroit, our slogan is Garveyism Now More than Ever. So we look at that slogan, because as we mention earlier from a material point of view, from an economic point of view we have to see Africa and African Liberation support as an investment. Because with oil at $126 dollars, we’ve got to get in the commodity business. It is important that we globalize our economic relations in Detroit. It is not enough that we only go local, county, state or national. We have to get into the commodity business in order to help our people; particularly those on fixed income as they go through the ravages of the hidden regressive tax called inflation.
David Rambeau: This has been another Project B.A.I.T. news analysis, The African Report, with Lawrence X.
If you want more information about Project B.A.I.T. check our website projectbait.blakgold.net and for our new website dbtcaf.com, Detroit Black Theater.com
Peace to the Detroit Nation
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A Detroit - New Orleans Connection
by David Rambeau
Everyone wants to expand their business. If you're doing business in Detroit or Michigan, both of which have declining populations, high unemployment and a shrinking core industry, U. S. auto companies, you need to consider exapnding your sales into other urban areas.
We in Project BAIT are always giving a thought to how we can enter other urban markets with our media products, our television shows, For My People, Business In The Black and Thedamu presents...., and with our latest project, the Urban Theater Journal.
The problem is having a business contact on the ground, in the city we want to expand into, having someone we can trust, that is, someone we've known for years, having someone who is receptive to our proposals, having someone we can realize a benefit for their business even as they provide opportunity for us, and having someone who knows how to communicate via the telephone and the Internet. As you can see those are difficult criteria to satisfy,which probably explains why we have found it difficult to expand into other markets. If you use a similar set of expansion criteria, you've run into the same challenges we have.
Recently however, an old colleague of ours now in business in New Orleans got in touch with us to renew our acquaintance. In the course of discussion it turned out that she had recently gone into business, so I immediately knew there was a potential opportunity for mutual benefit and development.
I replied to her overture and began to communicate by email. First, I made suggestions and provided an Interenet service to help her business go online. After on-going communications over the phone and the Interenet, it became clear to me that we could help each other even though we were hundreds of miles apart. An on-going development process between our two businesses has been started.
At this stage we're exchanging information rather than products. At the next stage we'll need to exchange and market products and promotion. Stage 2 will be critical to our mutual development.
But to develop our process even further and to plan for the future, we need to outreach to other Detroit and New Orleans businesses who have products and promotion that we can present through our respective businesses in Detroit and in New Orleans. In other words, if you're not growing you're standing still, or going backwards. This will be Stage 3.
So I'm reaching out to the readers of this article and their contacts in business. If you have a business, particularly a product, that you think could be distributed or sold and promoted in New Orleans through Project BAIT and our contact in New Orleans, please contact us at 313-871-3333.
You will need an email address as well as a telephone so we can reach you; you will need to be conscious of the Internet even if you don't have a web-site. We can facilitate your presence online at projectbait.blakgold.net as part of the project.
And finally, you must be ready to make a deal. To expand into another market is a complicated, long-term process; it will take time, energy, marketing and a business plan. If you're interested, let's explore the possibilities.
-30-
PS: We're also looking for free-lance writers for our publication, the Urban Theater Journal. You will need a resume' and some examples of your writing skills. Contact Project BAIT at your earliest convenience.
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Op Ed - from one of our readers.
The views expressed are not necessarily the views of Project BAIT. You are also invited to submit your writing for publishing on this site. Not all submissions will be published.
The Editor.
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Hello,
I apologize for not sending a personal note.
Please join me in attempting to reform Detroit government the old fashioned way: with protest and calls for justice.
I've already written to all of the offices listed, and have asked people to do the same and to share this information.
Your help would be appreciated and will possibly help save Detroit and SE Michigan.
Thank you!
Please remember that legal charges have not yet been filed. No official legal investigation has been conducted and no conclusions drawn.
If you really want to create enough pressure to improve Detroit, starting with the removal of Kwame Kilpatrick, a very orderly campaign MUST be conducted.
Without hurting any vendors or frittering our energies (and I am very open to suggestions), I would like to propose this:
Share the background story with people:
http://metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=6269
Write to Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy stressing the need to conduct a full and thorough investigation and to prosecute both Beatty and Kilpatrick. They should receive the same thorough investigation -- and the same treatment -- as any U.S. citizen.
Contact link is on the left banner:
http://www.waynecounty.com/prosecutor/default.asp
And then write Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Michael Callahan, who was brave enough to call Kilpatrick to the stand, and ask him to file the contempt of court charges he would were it you or I plainly perjuring ourselves in his courtroom:
Hon. Judge Michael Callahan
3rd Circuit Court
2 Woodward Avenue
Detroit, MI 48226
(313) 224-5261
January 25, 2008
The head of the City of Detroit’s Board of Ethics, said Friday that her office has gotten some calls from residents requesting forms to file a complaint about Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty having a romantic relationship in contrast to their sworn testimony in a whistleblower case.
Anyone can file a complaint with the board if the person believes a city official has broken the city’s ethics ordinance.
The ethics board has the power to admonish the employee and refer the matter to authorities for further investigation. It also can refer the matter to the City Council to begin proceedings to removal the official from office if the violations rise to the standards for removal required in the city charter.
Deborah Gaskin, the board’s executive director, said her office has received three or four phone calls inquiring about how to obtain a complaint form.
Write to the local FBI and CC the national office, requesting a full investigation into the Detroit Police Department because the officers who were fired were not protected even after repeated reports of mayoral misconduct.
Special Agent in Charge Andrew G. Arena
FBI Detroit
26th. Floor, P. V. McNamara FOB
477 Michigan Avenue
Detroit, Michigan 48226
detroit.fbi.gov
(313) 965-2323
FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Call (202) 324-3000 or write to the following address:
Attn: FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, III
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Write the FBI a second letter asking that Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox be investigated because he did not allow complaints and testimony from the various officers who filed complaints as substantial to the whistle blower's trial.
These members of the Detroit City Council have supported an investigation and have effectively been denied: Monica Conyers and JoAnn Watson.
Write to them at their offices and cc all other council members:
http://www.detroitmi.gov/legislative/CityCouncil/Default.htm
Key points to make are these:
Both Kilpatrick and Beatty knew they were lying under oath, and rejected an earlier settlement that would have saved the city millions. That money could and should have gone toward city improvements and services.
Tamara Greene is dead and the investigation forcibly closed. Many lives have been ruined, including those of the officers fired and demoted. Detroiters live in fear because of this.
Chief of Police Ella Bully Cummings did not protect her own officers who were telling the truth, proving herself unfit to protect Detroit residents.
Copy this letter and send it to everyone you know.
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Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make all powerful.
Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make proud.
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Current Productions:
For My People
Business In The Black
Thedamu Presents...
Shows In Development:
Community Sports
Français Noir (French Language & Culture) - with Deborah Snead and David Rambeau
The All Home Improvement Show - with Gary Roquemore
Have Tools, Will Travel (Auto Repair)
THEDAMU Presents (Arts, Culture and Entertainment) - with Earnice Bright, Kim Williams, David Rambeau
Tech Talk TV - with Dameon Bryant
Other Projects:
Urban Journeys
Poets Corner with D'vine Kapilango
Writers Workshop - the Urban Theater Magazine
Theatre as a Movement - DIBTCAF - dbtcaf.com
Language Studies: German, French - with Victor Hill, David Rambeau, et al
The African Report w/ Lawrence X
Television Production Internship w/ David Rambeau
Computer Training - w/ Joe Williams
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29th NBUF Conf In Detroit |
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National Black United Front Conference started July 17, 2008 in Detroit
THE TWENTY-NINTH NBUF CONVENTION: THE NEXT GENERATION TAKING THE LEAD
By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill (July 8, 2008)
The National Black United Front ( NBUF ) is preparing for our Twenty-ninth Annual National Convention to be held in Detroit, Michigan from July 17-20 , 2007. This year we are hosted by two institutions , the Alkebulan Village located at 7701 Harper and the Timbuktu Academy of Science and Technology located at 10800 East Canfield. Our convention theme this year is: Passing the Torch: Preparing Youth for Leadership.
Time has a way of moving forward and it’s hard to believe that NBUF has been in existence for twenty-nine years. It is a remarkable achievement that a Black Movement organization made up of committed volunteers , with limited resources , has survived and continues to grow and develop.
NBUF grew out of the spirit of the 1960s and 70s when African people in this country were aggressively organizing around numerous issues. The activism of the Civil Rights Movement and its challenges against legal segregation was a spark that set off the mass motion of African people in America .
The mobilization and organizing of the Civil Rights Movement transitioned into the Black Power Phase of our movement in the late 1960s sparking the renewed call for Pan Africanism and Black Nationalism.
Through the disruptive tactics of the United States Government and its counterintelligence programs (COINTEL PRO) , the Black Liberation Movement in America suffered serious setbacks. Many leading activists and organizers were arrested and convicted on false charges , and continue to remain locked up , as political prisoners. Others were assassinated , such as Malcolm X , Dr. King , Fred Hampton , and Mark Clark.
By the late 1970s , the Black Liberation Movement was in serious disarray. This stimulated numerous leading Black activists , organizers , and leaders to convene a series of meetings. Twice during the latter years of the 1970s (1976-1977) , in Brooklyn , New York , several organizations attempted to bridge the gap of ideological disunity among the various forces in the Black Movement and formulate a United Front.
Many of the members of NBUF can remember the all-day meetings held in the East in an attempt at national unity. But the commitment , positions , and images of most forces were fixed. The mistrust and apprehensions of the past years lingered in the memories of most participants.
However , a core group of participants , in these meetings from around the country , agreed that it was urgent that a call be made to convene the founding convention of the National Black United Front / NBUF .
For more info-go to: www.nbufront.org
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