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TX.

Archaeologists Search for Texas Plantation Remains
HEMPSTEAD, Texas

Archaeologists are combing through a site about 50 miles northwest of Houston that nearly two centuries ago became Texas' largest plantation and then a staging area for Gen. Sam Houston's troops before the decisive Battle of San Jacinto.


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philadelphia - a project on george washington slaves

At President's House, a shameful history gives way to progress



& here




slavery excavations - I've followed this one for awhile -

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in DC
For D.C. Family, a Distinguished, if Little-Known, Ancestor
A Family Honors Its Forebear, a Slave in James Madison's White House

History has a way of sneaking up on a family, changing how its members see their place in the world. Sometimes it's a skeleton that bursts out of the closet. But sometimes, what's lost and suddenly found is sublime and amazing.

article here


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fr. Jamaica to Great Britain

BBC1 TV movie on J’cans living in Britain

The British Broadcasting Corporation One (BBC1) in the United Kingdom is planning to televise a major dramatization of Andrea Levy's bestselling novel "Small Island" which focuses on the experiences of Jamaicans arriving in Britain during the Windrush years.       

article is here



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fr. Frederick Md. to Jamaica !

Local Fulbright Scholar to study slave artifacts in Jamaica
ustin Dunnavant, of Frederick , graduated recently from Howard University. He studied in Africa this past summer and will spend the next 10 months to a year in Jamaica as a Fulbright Scholar.

Suggested hed: Local Fulbright Scholar studies slave artifacts in Jamaica

Justin Dunnavant is not your average 21-year-old.

The Frederick resident graduated from Gov. Thomas Johnson High School at age 15 and continued on to Howard University, where he earned two undergraduate degrees in May 2009 -- history and anthropology.

This summer, Dunnavant marked his 21st birthday in Africa.

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more on liberty hall here


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New York

Spike Lee brings Broadway's 'Passing Strange' to the big screen


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fr. Barbados to the UK

READING: How a Bajan in 1950s changed the town
IN THE early 1900s a Barbadian migrant travelled from his native island in search of work in the UK.

His destination should have been Swindon, but he alighted a stop early and found himself in Reading.

According to community activist Peter Small, the tale of this lone traveller is the reason why Reading, where black people make up four percent of the population, reportedly boasts the largest Bajan population outside of Barbados.

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in Los Angeles

Mom's legacy is world renowned black collection

Garage sales are for treasures. Museums are for the ages. Mayme Clayton spent a lifetime scouring one so her son could build the other.

When it's finished, curators say the Mayme A. Clayton Library & Museum of African American History & Culture will rival New York's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in size and significance.

Avery Clayton, 56, is still cataloging the hundreds of thousands of things his mom collected, but is working with the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino on a joint project and the Clayton's first major exhibition is scheduled Oct. 24 to Jan. 4.

article here




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mcdonald's new venture



McDonalds makes a website just for African Americans


& here

By Jide Ajani, Deputy Editor

NIGERIA would be 49 years as an independent nation in the next 96 hours, from the hour of 00:00:01, that is the very first seconds of Thursday, October 1, 2009. That much for what Nigeria would become. On the scale of nationhood, what giant strides can Nigeria boast of in 49 years as an independent nation?  And if that had only been the major question, it would have been better.

At a time when other nations would have been preparing for their golden jubilee, with a view to celebrating 50 years of nationhood, a prophecy came – yes prophecy – to the effect that disintegration is staring Nigeria and Nigerians in the face. It did not come from a man of humour but a man of God – and a revered one at that.

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fr. Blacknet on the upcoming Black History Month



in the UK





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a commentary fr. BY Dickson Igwe
of BVnews





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fr. the guardian


Britain needs to develop a more realistic, modest view of its role in the world if its foreign policy is to have any impact

article here






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BOSTON — Somewhere among the grassy hills, canopy trees and 19th century angel sculptures rest Butler and Mary Wilson.

In the early 1900s, the husband and wife team helped black World War I servicemen, fought discrimination against African Americans and oversaw the creation of the Boston NAACP chapter — the most active in the nation at the time.

They were laid to rest here, in Boston's historic Forest Hills Cemetery, sharing the space with writer e.e. cummings and 19th century white abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison.

Yet no one is exactly certain just where they are buried.

This fall, retired Harvard librarian Sylvia McDowell and the nonprofit wing of the cemetery are combing through historic funeral documents, gathering oral histories, and searching old maps to locate the Wilsons and other African Americans of Boston's past. McDowell and the Forest Hills Educational Trust say these people reflect New England's often overlooked ties to black history.

This is no small task: researchers are looking through records of more than 100,000 people buried throughout the 280-acre cemetery.

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revisiting the photo collection  exhibit

archive
Posted: 1 Oct 2009
Black History month story - Important Afro-Caribbean photographic archive acquired for Museum of London with Art Fund help.
As Black History month commences, independent charity The Art Fund announces the Museum of London’s acquisition of an important photographic archive charting London’s Afro-Caribbean history. The Roots to Reckoning archive comprises 90 photographs of London’s black community in the 1960s – 80s by three leading Jamaican-born photographers, Armet Francis, Charlie Philips and Neil Kenlock.

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other links to this story here



the book




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Designs That Speak Volumes
David Adjaye Making a Mark on D.C. With Libraries and African American Museum

By Philip Kennicott,
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 4, 2009

David Adjaye is a soft-spoken man and when he addresses a small crowd gathered in a Southeast Washington library, he forgets that microphones don't work so well if you don't hold them up to your mouth.

The 43-year-old Ghanaian architect, who has been commissioned to design two new libraries in the District, is in Washington to get feedback on his plans to build a replacement for the aging Francis A. Gregory Library on Alabama Avenue. The old building is standard institutional fare from the early 1960s: cinderblocks, ceiling tiles and narrow bands of windows that give you almost no sense of the lush park behind it.

If Adjaye's ideas prevail, the new structure will be a shining box, with a lattice of diamond-shaped windows and reflective glass, and a large overhanging roof cut open to allow light to flood in. It will be a bold assertion of contemporary architecture by one of the world's most prominent young architects, in a neighborhood that time and style seem to have forgotten.

But first, he must face the people.


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previous articles on this architect,
& other black architects in history, also here



More on Mr. Adjaye @ 07.02.08 in art.signal magazine,



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fr. all africa


More condemnations at the weekend, greeted the recent killing and alleged rape of women by the military in Conakry stadium, Guinea, with a call for an international commission of inquiry to probe the immediate and remote causes of the protest, following allegations that the head of the military junta, Captain Moussa Dais Camara, was planning to contest the presidential election in the country, scheduled for January, 2010.

article continues  here



& here

Sept. 29th



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BEIJING — Serena Williams reclaimed her world No. 1 ranking with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Russia's Ekaterina Makarova in the second round of the China Open on Tuesday.

"It feels pretty good. I'm really excited, I guess. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself, but I'm obviously happy to be there because I feel like I've been working so hard all year and, just happy to be back," said the American, who has spent a total of 72 weeks at No. 1, including from Feb. 2 to Apr. 19 this year.

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in DC
 

The Hall of Culture at the Organization of American States has been renamed after a Jamaican national hero. The OAS recently renamed the hall after the late Marcus Mosiah Garvey.

The Marcus Garvey Hall of Culture, located on the first floor of the historic main building of the OAS headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., will remain a venue for major cultural events, officials said.

Secretary General of the OAS, Miguel Insulza, said it was appropriate that Garvey be recognised by the organization, because he was active throughout the United States, the Caribbean and Latin America.

`This great Jamaican travelled throughout Central and South America, where he observed the difficult conditions under which his people lived and worked.

He was not only perceived to be a trouble-maker, he was a trouble maker demanding an improvement in living conditions and human rights for citizens all over the Americas,` Insulza said.

Insulza also challenged the audience to use Garvey`s bust, donated to the OAS by the Jamaican Government in the early 1980s and displayed in the Hall of Heroes (upstairs the Hall of Culture), as well as the renamed Hall of Culture, as symbols of equality and justice in the Americas.

Responding to the tributes, Garvey`s son, Dr. Julius Garvey, recalled his father as a 20th century leader, who dedicated his life to educating and uniting African people across the globe.

`As we advance into the 21st century, we must work together and develop and grow as one united people,` he recommended.

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& here @ caribworldnews




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in Cali.

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Weaving a link between American history and the African folk art of basket making is the focus of a trio of exhibits at UCLA’s Fowler Museum.

The largest of the three, “Grass Roots: African Origins of an American Art,” a traveling exhibition organized by the Museum for African Art in New York, explores the significant contributions of African culture to American art.

It features more than 200 objects from Africa and South Carolina, including sculptures, paintings, historical photos and, most notably, a multitude of baskets, a once essential farm tool that played a vital role in the rice culture of early America.

“Rice was the first major global export crop in the colonies, and American planters, including Thomas Jefferson, learned that inhabitants from the west coast of Africa possessed the knowledge and methods of planting rice in tidal marshes similar to the environment of the South’s low country, which stretched from the swamplands of South Carolina to Florida,” said Enid Schildkrout, chief curator at the Museum for African Art and co-curator of the exhibit. “They knew how to create dikes, drain the swamps and maintain the conditions necessary for rice farming.”

They also brought with them the skill of basket weaving.
Two kinds of baskets were needed on rice plantations: a head-carrying basket for storage and a winnowing basket, a flat coiled tray that separated the rice from the chaff. Most were made from local sweet grass.

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more, info on the baskets her fr. earlier golo post
@ 09.26.08

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on the work of the talented Ms. Sarah Jones
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Chronicle/Megan Lange

arah Jones’ “revolution” wasn’t televised. But her live, one-woman show Saturday at the Frauenthal Center for the Performing Arts may start one.

The Tony Award-winning playwright and performer delivered powerful, humorous, and often poignant messages about the need for freedom of expression in the arts and the importance of appreciating both the differences and similarities that exist among people throughout the world.

“The more we share our experiences and knowledge with each other the more we become you and me.” said Jones, making reference to the theme of the event — “You & Me.”

more details here

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Photographer Roy DeCarava, who died Oct. 27 at age 89, dedicated his 60-year career to capturing images of African Americans. His subjects ranged from daily life in his hometown of Harlem to the Civil Rights movement, but his most noted work featured photographs of jazz greats like Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong.

DeCarava studied painting and printmaking at the Cooper Union School of Art and the George Washington Carver Art School before taking up photography in the late 1940s. He returned to those schools to teach in the 1970s.

Tthe first black photographer to win a Guggenheim Fellowship, DeCarava was also awarded the National Medal of Arts. He founded A Photographer's Gallery in an attempt to gain public recognition for photography as a form of art.

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FILE - In this May 6, 1991 file photo, photographer Roy DeCarava, poses at his Brooklyn home in New York. DeCarava whose black-and-white images captured Harlem's everyday life and jazz greats who performed there, died Tuesday Oct. 28, 2009. He was 89.
Martin Cabrera, File / AP Photo




books

the sweet flypaper of life
& the sound I saw...



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from  Jamaica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade
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Jamaican dogsledders Newton Marshall (2nd left) and Damion Robb (right) are joined by founder of the Jamaica Dogsled Team, Danny Melville (left), and trainer Lance Mackey. Occasion was the screening of the documentary 'Underdog', which chronicles the journey of Marshall from his humble home in St. Ann to become part of the Jamaica Dogsled Team (JDT) to the Northern climes of North America on Thursday, November 12, at the Berkeley Church in downtown Toronto.



The indomitable spirit of the Jamaican people was certainly evident earlier this year when Mr. Newton Marshall became the first Jamaican to participate in the grueling Yukon Quest International Dog Sled Race.

For 12 days, Mr. Marshall traversed 1,600 kilometres of the roughest terrain in North America, travelling from the Yukon Territories in Canada to Alaska in the United States, battling sub-zero temperatures, mountain ranges, frozen and semi-frozen lakes, and sleep deprivation. In the end, he placed 13 out of 29 mushers (dogsledders), who started the race. In fact, 11 of the mushers did not complete the race.

Mr. Marshall's journey from his humble home in St. Ann to become part of the Jamaica Dogsled Team (JDT) to the Northern climes of North America is the subject of a documentary entitled: 'Underdog', which was screened at a fundraising event on Thursday, November 12, at the Berkeley Church in downtown Toronto.

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other article Mr. Marshall here @05.18.09





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from the philadelphia inquirer

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Posing as bathing beauties: Four women, Atlantic City, 1960s. Photo from the Charles L. Blockson Afro-American Collection, Temple University.



Billie Holiday is beaming in a 1956 photograph as she gazes at singer Billy Eckstine. Her trademark flower is pinned behind her left ear.

Pages later, a handsome Muhammad Ali and a suited James Brown are laughing as they stand together in a convertible Cadillac during a parade in 1960s Chicago.

And in one of the last gems in Deborah Willis' 15th book, Posing Beauty: African American Images From the 1890s to the Present, a woman is placing the Miss Sepia crown on the winner of the 1958 African American beauty pageant in Philadelphia.

Willis, a native Philadelphia photographer and New York University professor, says the black-and-white images in her 233-page softcover provide more than a fashionable walk down memory lane.

The book, she says, is a study of African American beauty. But you won't find among her pages a politically charged debate about the black aesthetic - historically characterized by discussions of complexion, hair texture, and social standing.

This interchange is more reflective, its images quiet.

"I just noticed something lacking in the photo [collections] that chronicled our lives," Willis said last week from a hotel in Boston, where she was scheduled to speak about her book, released in October. Willis will talk here Dec. 8 at the Free Library.

Posing Beauty is like a family photo album. Both remarkable and unremarkable events are photographed, and it is in these pictures that an inner beauty is captured.

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similar links on this book here @10.01.09 in golo books


& here in east coast events, exhibits 10.01.09




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fr. capital fm

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NAIROBI, Kenya, Nov 22 - Malian singer Salif Keita and the Red Cross have made a joint appeal for better protection of albinos in Africa's Great Lakes region, where dozens of them have been brutally murdered.

"We are telling governments that they are not doing enough," said Matthias Schmale, under secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

"That includes bringing the people who committed those crimes to justice," he told AFP at the launch of a report by the IFRC on the plight of albinos in the region.

Over the past two years, at least 56 albinos were killed and dismembered in Tanzania and Burundi and their limbs were sold to witchdoctors to make lucky charms.

The report was supported by the foundation of Salif Keita, a world-famous albino musician from Mali who is also a human rights activist.

"Salif is 60 years old and that most likely makes him one of the oldest albinos on the continent," his brother Mamad ou Keita said.

"The others have been killed at birth, or assassinated or have died of skin cancer because they are inadequately protected, don't have access to treatment or are marginalised," he told AFP.

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jamaica gleaner

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Gloria Simms - Paul Williams photo







========================

in NYC




========================

inside costa rica news


BRASILIA - Over 12 states in Brazil celebrated on Friday the Day of Black Consciousness in honor of the country's 17th-century anti-slavery leader Zumbi dos Palmares.

In cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, people held parades against racism, discrimination, prejudice, homophobia, sexism and religious intolerance.

Many economic and financial activities around the country were suspended on the day, including the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange, which is set to reopen on Monday.

The Day of Black Consciousness was first celebrated in 1978 to commemorate Zumbi dos Palmares, a black Brazilian who led a group of runaway slaves in Brazil, known as the Quilombo dos Palmares, to fight the then Portuguese colonizers in the 17th century and was killed in an ambush on Nov. 20, 1695.

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more on the quilombos here
in archives @03.19.09



& @ 10.24.08



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fr. voa




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n 1969, Dartmouth launched its African and African American Studies (AAAS) Program, one of the very first institutions in the nation to do so.

In April 2010, the College will recognize that 40th anniversary by presenting “Black Theatricality: Race and Representation in Black Literature and Culture: The 2010 Bildner Symposium,” a two-day conference administered by the Leslie Center for the Humanities.

continues here




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in philadelphia



Since the Philadelphia School Reform Commission passed a resolution mandating that all students take an African American history course, Molefi Kete Asante says his phone has been ringing off the hook.

While some calls have been from media outlets seeking interviews, others have been from school districts exploring the possibility of following in Philadelphia’s footsteps.

“There are many movements now . . . for this to happen,” says the noted Temple University professor, who has helped the District develop a framework for teaching African and African American history. “I think it’s about time. It’s a legitimate movement.”

Asante has long followed how the world views African and African American studies. He has penned literally scores of books on the topics and ushered some 125 doctoral students through Temple’s African American Studies department. The African Union, an association of African nations, invited him to give one of the keynote addresses at the Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and the Diaspora in 2004.

Asante prepared three course outlines for the District, and the District piloted a high school course in African history based on his outline last spring. Asante has also assisted the District’s professional development activities.

A six-week unit on Africa now opens the School District’s new high school African American history class.
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( I love the poem by Mr. L. Hughes <--nyao's
comment.)

RIP Mr. Clayton! & Thanks


Avery Clayton (1947-2009)

Avery Clayton lived long enough to find a home for the largest collection of African American artifacts on the West Coast. But not long enough to see the treasure trove of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, feature films and ephemera, his mother's life's work, made available to the public. Mr. Clayton died suddenly on Thursday, while hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. He was 62 years old.

article here



previous article on the Maymie Clayton Collection
here @05.25.09

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