Great Video-Imagine

Great song and video, by local artist KIWI. Hella cameos from my folks :)

WE WILL NOT LEAVE WITHOUT A FIGHT!

All over the country, gentrification is happening. It has hit my beloved San Francisco extremely hard. There are continued, varied, and powerful forces and efforts pushing people of color, especially black people and low income residents out of the city. The black population in SF, has continually gone done over the last 10 years to the tune of thousands of families having to move out because of home prices, lack of jobs, and forcible removal. The officials of this city are doing nothing, most are cashing in.

But, we are fighting back! Don't let them take your community without a fight! We won't!

WE DID IT!
AFFORDABLE HOUSING INITIATIVE FOR BAYVIEW
ON ITS WAY TO THE JUNE BALLOT!

It’s true! Today, the San Francisco Department of Elections certified that we met the requirements to go to the June 2008 ballot! For more than a week, staffers at the Department of Elections painstakingly checked each of the 11,811 signatures that we gathered to make sure that they were registered voters.

Again, we couldn’t have done it without you—and the fight is FAR from over. Join us this FRIDAY for a victory/thank you party at POWER, and to learn the next steps to win in June!

http://www.bayareagirlsrockcamp.org/aboutus.html

FRESH CAMP!! GIRLSROCKCAMP! It started off in Portland, now they are popping up all over and we have one out here now!! Yay! check out the website and there is a great movie opening today on the camp in Portland. Check it out. I'm going to go see it, you should too and bring all the little and big girls you know! :)

Good and Bad times for Black Women

NEW YORK - This is a triumphant time for black women: Condoleezza Rice in the global diplomatic spotlight, Michelle Obama captivating campaign crowds as a potential first lady, billionaire Oprah Winfrey playing political kingmaker.

It’s also a traumatic time: Rutgers University basketball players disparaged by radio host Don Imus, a black woman kidnapped and tortured by whites in West Virginia, the home-owning dreams of black women disproportionately dashed by foreclosures.

That remarkable mix is the focus of this year’s State of Black America report, issued Wednesday by the National Urban League. It features essays looking at the array of challenges faced by African-American women: economic, social, psychological and medical.

---

“The one thing that is certain is the need to hear and amplify the voices of black women,” longtime civil rights activist Dorothy Height writes in the foreword. “Too often, our needs, concerns, struggles, and triumphs are diminished and subordinated to what is believed to be the more pressing concerns of others.”

Julianne Malveaux, the president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C., contends in the report’s opening essay that the image of black women in popular culture has barely improved in the year since the Imus incident.

White men continue to dominate on TV’s Sunday morning news shows, she writes, while “the gyrating, undulating image of African-American women in rap music videos and, by extension, on cable television is as prevalent as ever.”

Working harder, suffering more
The report delves deeply into economics, noting that black women are more likely than white or Hispanic women to be running a household and raising children on their own. According to Malveaux, black women hold more jobs nationwide than black men, yet — despite their breadwinner roles — earn less on average, $566 a week compared to $629 for black men.

In an essay about the home loan crisis, Andrea Harris, president of the North Carolina Institute for Minority Economic Development, suggests that black women have suffered disproportionately. Assessing recent federal data on subprime loans, which are a main culprit in the foreclosure epidemic, Harris says black women received far more of these loans in 2006 than white men.

Click for related content

Report: State of Black America 2008 (pdf) Gut Check: How are race relations changing? Special NBC report: Where African American Women stand

“It is easy to imagine the devastation that is headed toward African-American women and their communities,” Harris writes.

An essay by Dr. Doris Browne, a public health expert, details the above-average rates of cancer, diabetes and heart disease among black women.

On the success path
On an upbeat note, former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman notes in her essay that black women are making huge strides as entrepreneurs. The number of businesses owned by them increased by 147 percent between 1997 and 2006, compared to an overall business growth rate of 24 percent, she wrote.

Another of the essayists, Melanie Campbell of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said in an interview that disparities in health care and economics are the paramount issues for black women as the election campaign unfolds.

Exit polling shows that black women have become a larger force within the Democratic electorate compared to 2004, and Campbell said their expectations for policy changes also are rising.

“We want to go beyond being thought about,” she said. “We want action.”

'Backbone of the black family'
The president of the Urban League, a 98-year-old black empowerment organization, hailed women as “the backbone of the black family” — constantly surmounting obstacles. Marc Morial called for expansion of programs that would assist black women in starting businesses, protect more of them from predatory lending schemes, and provide more of them with affordable, high-quality child care.

“When black women hurt, the American family suffers,” Morial wrote. “But by uplifting black women, especially those struggling hardest to keep their families together and their dreams on track, we lift up every American community.”

A year ago, the Urban League focused its State of Black America report on the difficulties facing many young black men, including their high rates of crime and imprisonment. This year’s theme was welcomed by black women who believe their particular concerns often are overlooked.

“I’m heartened that we’re delving into this issue in depth in a way that we haven’t in the past,” said Avis Jones-DeWeever, a public policy expert with the National Council of Negro Women.

“For us, it’s two steps forward, one step back,” she added. “But we do have a lot to be proud of.”

Where my ladies at? sexuality and women in hip hop

Interesting website on women in hip hop- wheremyladiesat.com, check it out

Coporate evil strikes again

Just got this email about ExxonMobil trying to mess with Venezuela's oil because they want to own (gasp) THEY'RE OWN RESOURCES! Jesus! Read on.

Support Venezuela’s right to sovereignty!

United States oil giant ExxonMobil Corporation has launched a major attack on the Venezuelan people’s right to independence and self-determination.

In January and February, ExxonMobil used the courts in Britain, the US and the Netherlands to get injunctions that freeze up to $12 billion in assets of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), in those countries. The British injunction, granted on January 24 without any prior notice to PDVSA, will be heard again on February 22. The US injunction was upheld by a February 13 ruling of the US Federal Court.

ExxonMobil’s economic thuggery is an attempt to undermine and reverse the Venezuelan government’s decision last May to nationalise ExxonMobil’s 41.7% stake in the Cerro Negro project in the Orinoco oilfield. The nationalisation was part of the revolutionary government’s efforts to recover Venezuela’s sovereignty over its natural resources. ExxonMobil rejected the Venezuelan government’s offer of compensation, instead using the legal system in various First World countries to punish the country. In contrast, France’s Total and Norway’s Statoil have agreed to accept from Venezuela close to $1 billion compensation for part of their holdings in the oil project.

ExxonMobil is the world’s largest oil company, and was a key “stakeholder” in the US’s bloody invasion and occupation of Iraq. The corporation’s attack on Venezuela is a continuation of its aggressive response to any government daring to assert its nation’s right to own and control their natural resources. More fundamentally, the attack also aims to destabilise Venezuela and undermine the socialist revolution being constructed by the Venezuelan people.

PDVSA accounts for some 90% of Venezuela's foreign exchange and half of its federal tax revenue, and it is the crucial source of funds for the Venezuelan government's programs that provide free education and health care to the poor. In 2006, the state-owned oil company spent $13.3 billion on such programs, up from $6.9 billion in 2005 and more than double the $5.8 billion it invested in new domestic gas and oil projects.

ExxonMobil’s actions have angered poor Venezuelans, who have held protests around the country. As oil workers’ union leader Luis Carvajal said: “This transnational has exploited our wealth, has exploited our workers and violated our rights. All the workers in the Orinoco oil belt support the nationalisation.”

Venezuela supplies about 10% of the US’s oil. On February 14, PDVSA halted oil supplies to ExxonMobil and the government is now considering suspending oil supplies to the US. As Venezuela's energy minister, Rafael Ramirez, has emphasised, the interests of the Venezuelan nation are more important than any corporation, and Venezuela will not back down from its policy of full oil sovereignty.

In light of these events, we the undersigned:

· Support the Venezuelan government’s efforts to defend and extend the Venezuelan people’s common ownership and control over Venezuela’s natural resources, and defend the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s right to assert its social, political and economic sovereignty.

· Condemn ExxonMobil’s economic blackmail against Venezuela and call for it to immediately withdraw its legal campaign against PDVSA.

· Reject as illegitimate and immoral the British, US and Dutch courts’ order to freeze PDVSA’s assets. Only Venezuela, through its own courts and in accordance with its own Constitution, has the right to decide the ownership and control of the resources in its territory. So-called “international arbitration” on Venezuela’s resources via courts in the First World countries is colonialism.

· Stand in solidarity with the protest actions of Venezuela’s people, trade unions and social organisations against ExxonMobil and the US government’s economic and political thuggery, and commend the words of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “They will never rob us again, those bandits of ExxonMobil”.

For more information, contact the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network at info@venezuelasolidarity.org

The death of hyphy and fuck radio!

So, really interesting article on sfweekly.com about the death of hyphy and how KMEL had something to do with it and how they are the puppet and pawn of clear channel and how they do not support local artist, unless they are getting cashed out or Big Von-program manager, happens to like you! OUTRAGE, DISGUST, ALL THAT!

RADIO SUCKS! Unless it's internet or satellite because you can play whatever. And furthermore as the article mentioned towards the end; hyphy was far from the only thing the bay was offering, can offer, and will be offering in the future. Clear Channel is the devil, we must use other outlets, as many of us do already to get our artistry heard and as listeners and consumers we must support our local music scenes and artist. DEATH TO THE MACHINE.

Real Shit!

New Talib, beautiful and simple!

After going on xxlmag and seeing silly, b.s videos by Flo Rida and Jim Jones, my roommate and I watched the new Talib Kweli video-"Hostile Gospel" Real hip hop..that's all I have to say!!

check it out!

Angela Davis

I had like three pics, but only this one showed up.lol. But, that is Angela Davis! If you don't know who she is, shame on you and look her up!!

She spoke at Mills on Monday. It was phenomenal, hella people, packed house, they had to turn people away. She talked about what Black History really means and who and why we should honor certain people for uplifting, empowering, making a contribution to black people and not just honor them because they are black!

She touched on many subjects with intelligence and keen and interesting insight, she would have had a captive audience for three hours I think.lol. But, she only spoke for about an hour. Her new campaign/passion is extreme prison reform, meaning "abolishing prisons!" She works with Critical Resistance a prison reform group, look them up and look up the prison industrial complex! She connected prisons and slavery and racism, capitalism, all to how are prisons work and why everything else in this country is fucked up. Also, she called for multigenerational, multicultural, multigendered, multi-sexuality, multi multi.lol.coalitions to sustain any real change.

We must work together!

Artist who are under the radar or bubbling at the surface

There are many proclamations about the state of music. About this is dead and this is watered down and yadda yadda! However, I know many an independent artist, including myself :) and some who are on majors, who are keeping music alive. Check them out below!

Raheem Devaughn
JDavey
Eric Roberson
Janelle Monae
Jazmine Sullivan
Tanya Morgan
Keri Hilson
PJ Morton
Anthony David
Georgia Anne Muldrow
Jaiden
IndiaShawn
Ryan Leslie
Drake
Little Brother
Ra-Re Valverde
Rashaan Patterson
Bilal
Kudu
Hope
Alice Smith
The Cool Kids
Mateo
Matthew Santos

All my local hip hop and other homies
League 510
SeanBo
Bracy and ID
Simon T
Mezmetic
The Attik
Trackademics, the whole Honor Roll crew


and many more to come, those are just off the top of my head and I'm at work.lol
go to myspace.com and you will find them all!! especially myspace.com/siairashawn