Category Archives: African American Arts

Hidden Colors Documentary – Free Public Viewing

Posted by Wonder Woman on

Hidden Colors Documentary – Free Public Viewing (NBUF)

Saturday, August 13 · 4:00pm – 7:00pm

7717 West Good Hope Road , Milwaukee, WI

Alkebulan Village Society

NBUF (National Black United Front) and Alkebulan Village Society will sponsor the public viewing of the dynamic documentary Hidden Colors. This event will be free to the public, food and drinks available.

 

Hidden Colors is a groundbreaking documentary about the real and untold history of people of color around the globe. This film will discuss some of the reasons why the contributions of African and aboriginal people have been left out of the pages of history. The film makers traveled around the country talking to scholars, historians, and social commentators who uncovered such amazing facts about things such as:

  • The original image of Christ
  • The true story about the Moors
  • The original people of Asia
  • The great West African Empires
  • The presence of Africans in America before Columbus
  • The real reason slavery was ended

and much more…

Hidden Colors is executive produced by New York Times bestselling author/radio host Tariq Nasheed.

http://hiddencolorsfilm.com/home.php

Please come out and support this event.

Vendors welcome – for more information call 414-248-4922

http://www.AfrikanSpeak.com

 

BREAKING NEWS: Meade in Milwaukee July 30th

Posted by Wonder Woman on

Aspiring Writers

One on One with

Frederick Alexander Meade

 

Date:                  July 30th 2011

Time:                 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Location:          Wisconsin Black Historical  Society/ Museum
                              2620 West Center Street, Milwaukee, WI 53206

Phone:               414-372-7677     

Email:                clayborn@wbhsm.org

Mr. Meade will visit Milwaukee to work with aspiring writers

Please encourage all writers to attend and meet with Mr. Meade to learn more about writing as he shares his experiences and provides advice regarding the field.

Writing Seminar

Session I:   The Power of the Written Word  

Session II:  The Field of Journalism (How to get published, working with editors etc…)

About Our Guest:

Frederick Alexander Meade is one of today’s most compelling social and political commentators…

A gifted orator, he is a powerful mix of prophet, freedom fighter, and historian. He travels extensively, addressing topics of national and global significance. A fearless challenger of the status quo, Frederick Alexander Meade is one of the most provocative intellectuals in the public arena.

Mr. Meade’s critical analyses expose the institutional structures that serve as impediments to the welfare of those who comprise the African diaspora. He courageously pronounces the truth he discerns and makes no apologies for the positions he assumes in providing impassioned orations designed to empower the masses.

Frederick Alexander Meade is a syndicated columnist currently residing in Atlanta Georgia, providing analysis on social and political matters.

He is a contributor to Black Star News, The Afro American, The Michigan Chronicle, Race-Talk Blog Magazine and Press TV among many other news media outlets around the world. His work has also been featured in The Huffington Post.

Meade a NNPA (National Newspaper Publishers Association) Special Correspondent has been acknowledged for his unwavering stance in advocating for social and political truths.

He can be heard on Milwaukee’s 1290 WMCS “The Evening Rush Show” hosted by Earl Ingram Jr. every Monday from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. Central Time during the hour segment, “Mondays with Meade.”

Wisconsin Black Historical Society/Museum                                                      More about our Featured Guest

http://wbhsm.homestead.com/home.html                                                        http://www.frederickmeade.com

The Dream is Dead and Gone to China!

Posted by Wonder Woman on

While WW is busy fighting crime, I thought you would like to revisit this topic from July 2011 since it is soon in coming. I think it is an outrage that the MLK Memorial looks Asian, angry, and is minus African American workers or artists!!

Peace Family,

WW

MLK Memorial Still Brews in Controversy for Building with Chinese Workers

July 5, 2011 By Staff  of Your Black World

http://yourblackworld.com/2011/07/05/mlk-memorial-still-brews-in-controversy-for-building-with-chinese-workers/

Your Black World reports.

We have just two months before the August 28 celebration of a new memorial in Washington DC dedicated to the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The site will be four acres, and cost $120 million to construct.   The memorial continues on in spite of controversy about the builders choosing a sculptor from China.

The King family is in support of the use of a Chinese sculptor, leaving many American and African American artists disappointed that their talents were not used by the family.  There are also some who believe that the 30-foot likeness of Dr. King appears too confrontational, contrasting with King’s non-violent approach to Civil Rights.

Ed Jackson, executive architect of the Martin Luther King National Memorial, said that the King family approved the likeness created by Lei Yixin.

“I’ve seen probably 50 sculptures of my dad, and I would say 47 of them are not good reflections — that’s not to disparage an artist,” said Martin Luther King III. “This particular artist — he’s done a good job.”

The critics of this decision include a sculptor who was on an earlier team.  Also, academics, union members and others were angered by the decision to bring a group of Chinese workers to Washington to put the statue together.  Those who support the monument are working to deal with the criticism as they seek ways to raise the last $6 million needed to finish the project.

“He had already created … three additional sculptures of Dr. King’s head,” Jackson said, referring to past work that had been done by Lei.

Jackson then brought pictures of four different heads to two of King’s children, who chose Lei’s as the best of the group.

“The response was the first one,” King III said. “I informed them that this was the one that had generated all that controversy about their father looking confrontational. Martin said, ‘Well if my father was not confrontational, given what he was facing at the time, what else could he be?’”

Ed Dwight, a sculptor who’d been on the project earlier, said that he thought that Lei Yixin would help him, but not that he would be doing the job by himself.   Dwight claims that King would be insulted to hear that a sculptor from a Communist country would be working on his likeness.

“Dr. King would be turning over in his grave if he knew,” Dwight said. “He would rise up from his grave and walk into their offices and go, ‘How dare you?’”

There are also some who would argue that Dr. King, a man who fought for the rights of American workers, might be concerned about the exclusion of black and white American workers on the project.  Bringing Chinese workers across the world to work on a King memorial is an interesting reminder of corporate globalization that is taking place in America today.  Throughout the economic recovery, American workers have been the least to benefit, while the wealthy and corporations have done quite well.  Part of the reason for this division is due to the fact that wages are kept low by using workers overseas.

Gil-Scott Heron Gone But Never Forgotten.

Posted by Disrael on

Gil Scott...View ImageView Full Size Image

Gil-Scott Heron died last week.  The news said, “He had a history of drug use.” One could not argue with that.   However, Gil-Scott Heron’s life was more than just his bout with substance abuse…. I remember hearing him say, “Like the forest they buried beneath the highway…..never had a chance to grow.”   This shook my mind, back in ’78!  How many of us ever stop to think that there is a forest buried underneath I-43.  Why do you think they have to keep patching up the cracks?  That forest is still fighting to break through and be what it was meant to be, just like a lot of our young people and shit some of us old heads as well. This was early in my young, Black life. Young people, I implore you to check this brother out, seriously.  If you dig thought-provoking, conscience-raising art, Hip-Hop, Rap or just like hearing true words spoken; consider also that some of his stuff is 40 years old.

In reality as Gil-Scott passes away with a 20 second sound byte, some of us would be wise to reflect on the fact that our day is getting closer.  What will they say about you when you are gone?  Did I do anything of value?  God knows the kids have given us some cause for concerns.  Did I create any beauty?  Will they even give you and your life a  second thought when you are gone ?Gil-Scott Heron, you did your part.  Job well done Blackman, Black Poet.    The revolution will not be televised or online.  Enjoy your well-deserved rest brother.  The struggle continues.

Whatever Happened To Bronzeville?

Posted by Wonder Woman on

 

 

Whatever Happened To Bronzeville?

The mayor renigs on his promise to our community!

Some weeks ago Mayor Barrett announced that he was leading a team of business and community leaders to rethink Wisconsin Avenue, to aide businesses in that immediate area and help the area become more economically viable as well as appeasing to the eye. Well that is all swell, but seems the mayor forgot about a project he was going to revitalize in his campaigning for mayor, help prosper and redevelop. What happened to developing Bronzeville dear mayor?

THE BRONZEVILLE DISTRICT

“The Bronzeville Cultural and Entertainment District is a City of Milwaukee redevelopment initiative inspired by Milwaukee’s original Bronzeville District of the early to mid 1900’s.

The heart of the original Bronzeville neighborhood was along Walnut Street between King Drive and 12th Street. By the 1930s, the number of African American-owned businesses in this area exceeded all other areas of the city – with the highest concentration between 6th and 9th Streets.”

  More about Bronzeville history

  http://city.milwaukee.gov/Bronzeville/History.htm

Some years later Bronzeville is still sitting here with little development for the African American community, Black businesses, local tenants and those who had high hopes for a new era with lofty dreams of infusing past memories of a rich past with the new semantics of life in an urban setting.

It’s 2012 and Bronzeville is a shell of what it should be by now, what we were promised it would be restored to. It is not entirely the mayor’s fault. In order to build anything in our community and make it flourish, we must assist in the process. We have seen many businesses come and go and come and go and …a vicious cycle of bad business deals, lack of community support or involvement, horrible communication from the Mayor’s office and lack of support (when is the last time you saw him there shopping, patronizing, visiting?), and the appearance from the media stories that this is still a rough neighborhood and just plain ignorance. Ignoring the businesses we do have in Bronzeville, ignoring the Alderwoman fighting to promote and plan (Milele Coggs District #6), ignoring the area, ignoring the project, ignoring US!!

(A quick little history lesson: Mayor Hoan, for which the bridge is named, had a great part in the destruction of Bronzeville and “Little Africa” by adding the I-94 corridor. Yet we honor this man as a great mayor. Mayor Barrett has the opportunity to right this gross wrong and make a powerful stance against the segregation we seem to never be able to shake off.)

I am sure some will say look at all the new housing projects. Yep more condos and I don’t see too many of us affording them!! But they sure do look pretty. The low income developments will also be nice once completed, if they are well built. How long will they stay nice? Can we get good management teams to manage them well? Can we make people respect their new living space and not tear it down like so many housing projects before? Recently the news and neighbors have brought to light more and more horror stories about low-income residential developments and the lack of effort on the part of developers to use quality material, build properly within code, and the need for oversight. The developers get the government handout off the top in some cases and then use cheap parts and spotty workmanship for the infrastructure. I also hear and have witnessed complaints about new housing developments, mostly white owned with some minority contractors, but that’s for another day! And if I am wrong, please correct me!!

That still leaves those residents with few businesses to shop. They might be feeling insecure if they watch local TV which depicts the area as violent and hardly ever shows Bronzeville in a good light except for maybe MLK day or Juneteenth day. Some months ago someone was shot right in front of a store and that was plastered all over the local media. I have tried to find positive pieces about the district to counteract the bad, but it is hard to do unless you live there, which I do. You can see good versus evil daily, but with a MIA mayor, the evil seems to grab more of

a stake in the district despite the efforts of Coggs and a few other dedicated soldiers to save this piece of US!

We can see out and out blight on the main thoroughfare of North and MLK! An abandoned looking building housing an closed Walgreens, a Time Warner Cable Payment Center and a one-stop shop. Might as well add a Cricket, a smoke shop, and a fried chicken outlet! Currently Bronzeville is an empty vision for the entertainment piece it once was; the cornerstone of Bronzeville!! At a glance, it is still ghetto heaven and I do expect much more Mayor Barrett starting with you! You can fix Wisconsin Avenue once your promise and obligation to us has been fulfilled!!!

Education-wise we do have St. Marcus Lutheran School anchoring down the community with its higher standards of education, superior emphasis on religious and African American educational needs, and its own personal commitment to the community. Many of the staff are anchored in the area, buying homes, putting their social justice into action!

 But then we have a handful of closed schools (MPS mostly), as well as schools that look like jails. They need a cosmetic upgrade as well as a caring staff. This is where our governor fits in. We must not let him take away the residency requirement. If it’s good enough to work in, it’s good enough to live in! He also needs to commit to this project with state funding and seek federal assistance. He’s on the hook too! Creating a new and powerful tax base helps the entire state as well as Milwaukee!

Sadly the patron saint of the street, MLK’s statue is hiding along his namesake drive. Symbolic of the way the area is a hiding jewel ready to be made over and brought back to its historic glory days.

Family before we let this mayor and his administration off the hook to go and remake other parts of the city we need to get our elected back on board with Bronzeville. If black elected could bring a whole state to its collective knees, (Taylor, Coggs, Grigsby, etc…) they certainly can redirect some attention to Bronzeville too!

For more information on the area please visit

http://city.milwaukee.gov/Bronzeville

The most recent good news from Bronzeville was just released right before posting:

“Two more projects have been proposed for the Bronzeville African-American Cultural Arts and Entertainment District.”

“We have made steady progress in cultivating the Bronzeville area as a cultural and entertainment district that honors a rich history in our community. In the present, however, development in this area and on Historic Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. means more stable neighborhoods, increased economic viability and more jobs for residents,” Ald. Miele Coggs said.”

http://onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/bronzevilledevelomentplans.html

Here is a story about the efforts from Urban Milwaukee:

http://urbanmilwaukee.com/2010/07/21/bronzeville-takes-a-small-step-forward/

Please also take a moment to write the mayor and the governor too! Tell them in order for segregation and black unemployment and other cultural issues to begin repairing is by starting here in Bronzeville and moving on up! Invest in us and not in more lake front condos for a change!! Time to make the whole city look beautiful! Also please thank Alderwoman Coggs for staying steadfast on this project. She keeps it front and center, but she cannot do it alone and she needs more support for this project from the community!

Peace Family,

WW

Remember you can find me at @Wonder2Woman * Twitter

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