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New
Orleans Flood Relief
Bulletin Board
September 1, 2005
Good Work
Hi Rudy,
It's great that you and ChickenBones are supporting
efforts to help the victims. We in the school system are
developing a plan. ChickenBones continues to do well.
That's great.
Be blessed,
Yvonne
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Creating
Community
I have to admit that I am grieving, Rudy.
Got to find a way to make a meaningful contribution. I'm
cleaning out my clothes closet and gathering up other supplies.
The whole scene has put my mother back in bed. She's 87. She
lives with me and we used to live in New Orleans. The
racism in the reporting is so deep.Your friend,
Joyce
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CLA
and Aid to Katrina Victims
Miriam and all my dear friends,
I am going to start a clothes
drive. Many are without clothes, shoes, etc. until they
can get settled. We have a faculty member here from New
Orleans who has lost her home. Her mother is in a hospital
along with her sister and can't evacuate. I will work with
all to help in any way I can. Has anyone heard from Karen,
Jerry, Bernardo and others? Dellita, how is your family?
Caroll
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Katrina Victims/Talent/Skills DataBank
Dear Caroll, Dellita, and James,
I am writing to you because you are friends and colleagues,
as well as present or former officers of CLA to see if there's
something that we can do to help our colleagues at Dillard, Xavier, and Southern Universities
who have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. I have been
thinking about friends like Karen Becnel Moore, Elizabeth Brown
Guillory, and Jerry Ward, who are long-time members of CLA, and about other college professors, artists, and scholars from
New Orleans. You will remember that this group hosted the
2001 CLA convention in New Orleans.
Yesterday I received an indirect communication from a noted
writer who was forced to relocate to Houston, where he has no
home or job. I learned today of another professor who was
staying in a Houston hotel for $79, but had to move to an army
facility where he pays $19. The plight of students and faculty
from these historically-Black colleges is desperate, and we
should try to help. We can do three things:
1. LOCATE—We can tap into the networks of these
professors--their friends, colleagues, and families--to get
their phone numbers, addresses, fax numbers, e-mail addresses,
anything that might help us to reach them.
2. CONTACT—We can send messages to them to find out how
they are, where they're located, and what we can do to help.
3. ASSIST—We can use our contacts at schools, colleges,
universities, libraries, churches, and other institutions to
open up opportunities for lectures, readings, consultantships,
editing jobs, part-time teaching, etc.
The devastation of the hurricane is overwhelming, but if each
of us does ONE positive thing, it will help to ease the burden.
Can someone volunteer to look through the list of members in
a recent issue of CLAJ to obtain names & addresses of those
located in the Gulf Coast area. (My CLAJs are in Memphis)
Could you send me those names on an e-mail attachment.
Once we have a list, could you, James, as Treasurer, provide
us with any e-mail addresses that you have for those members?
In the meantime, will you forward this message to other CLA
members whom you know.
Most important: Will you talk to your dept. chair,
dean, or provost about inviting one of these professors to come
to your college/university--with an honorarium & travel
expenses.
Finally, we can contribute to one of the organizations that
have established relief funds to help these colleges: The United Negro College Fund
(www.uncf.org),
the National Association of Equal Opportunity in Higher
Education (www.nafeo.org), and
HBCUconnect.com, the largest online destination for HBCU
students & alumni, at www.hbcuconnect.com. In peace,
Miriam
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Miriam, peace and blessings,
I think your approach is sound. If we can set up a talent,
skills, data bank of all these professors and writers and
musicians and other articulate people from New Orleans and
environs, whatever programs or conferences that occur within the
next year would have a means of contacting them, helping them, and inviting them
to speak, to perform, or give papers or reports as a means of
putting money in their pockets and pulling their lives back
together.
If we can get these people on their feet they will be better
able to help others in the region. Of course, we at ChickenBones:
A Journal will do whatever we can to make that databank
available to organizations and groups who are preparing
programs. As ever and always, Rudy
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Rudy, I agree with you, I think what Miriam has done is very good.
Herbert
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That's a GREAT idea, Rudy. If you can use ChickenBones:
A Journal as a data bank, I'll feed you all the info that I
can get. I haven't visited the site in ages, but will do
so now. Herbert said that you have a lot of info about K.
on the site. Miriam
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Yes, Rudy this is in the direction and more functional
and real then donating to the goddamn Red Cross. I want to help
and be useful, not throw away money and energy into phony
organizations. I am waiting to hear back from Kalamu about
wiring him some cash.
Keep me posted as I want to help our brothers and sisters.
It's really strange writing this from another country.
Dennis
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Don't forget your museum people. In fact, my
wife, Rhonda Miller was teaching at Dillard and running a
program at the Louisiana Children's Museum. There is a lot
of displaced talent out here. I'm glad that I've got a
third floor storage in New Orleans so that some of my artwork
might have survived.
Chuck
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Katrina Networking
Dear Rudy, Brenda Marie Osbey has a long note on Ethelbert's blog http://www.eethelbertmiller1.blogspot.com/
for 9-1-05 that may be of use in some way. Jeannette
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Dear Ethelbert,
Love you, love you and bless you and all who've asked and
expressed concern. My internet access is limited and people are
waiting in line to use the three computers here at thehotel.
I've sent the following to NBC Nightly. Please do me the favor
of forwarding it to any interested news service you can.
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To Whom It May Concern:
Those of us who did leave the City before the hurricane are
scattered and waiting to return to begin again. Reports of
looting, shooting and fires are distressing; but we hold on to
faith that order will be quickly restored. What is most
important is that those housed at the LA. Superdome not be
forced to remain in what is clearly an untenable situation.
Medical attention and supplies, food, clothing and
transportation out of the City must be provided them. Repairs of
levees and pumps must begin now.
Many Americans know New Orleans primarily as a tourist
destination, a playground of tourists and wealthy businessmen.
The fact is that this is one of the greatest cities this country
has known. It is unique in the history of the nation and through
such industries as oil & gas, shipping and transportation and
the growth and spread of jazz and the music culture that has
grown out of it, has provided the backbone for much of
what the rest of the world knows and thinks of as "American."
Years ago we were dubbed "the City that Care Forgot," "
Big Easy," "Silver City" not only because we knew how to enjoy
life, because we were and are an open-handed and open-hearted
people. New Orleanians the world over intend nothing less than
the salvation of our City. Report that.
I, my Mother and my companion left New Orleans on Sunday
afternoon, traveled through Mississippi and Arkansas, and landed
eventually in Shreveport, LA. at the Isle of Capri Casino Hotel.
My brother remained in the City and still has land-line
telephone service and water. Presently, I am able to make but
not receive calls on my cell phone. We are safe and anxious to
return to our City.
New Orleanians are a people of unimaginable strength and
resilience and New Orleans will be rebuilt as a great city. I am
returning to begin again as soon as possible. Report that. Tell
that to the world again and again.
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Clearinghouse
of Information
Dear Arthur,
It was so good hearing from you, with news about
your new novel, grounded in Memphis history, and your efforts
with regard to Riverside Park. It seems that you are
centered in a very creative phase of your life.
I was happy to hear that the Flowers have found
refuge in the city and are managing to survive the crisis.
I'm trying to do what I can here and in Memphis
to help because the N. O. crisis is just devastating; as
someone commented the destruction is of "biblical
proportions": it's this country's tsunami and New
Orleans in the new Pompeii. I'll keep you posted. Peace,
Miriam
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miriam,
my url, its http://rootsblog.typepad.com/rootsblog
trying
to set it up as a clearing house of information on katrina, i
already have a post of yours on it
please keep me informed of anything you think i need to know to
be effective
be well
arf
New Orleans Floods: The Historical Record
this is a selection
from nytimes columnist david brooks column. in it it talks
about the social impacts of previous natural disasters in
neworleans and elsewhere
arf
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Then
in 1927, the great Mississippi flood rumbled down upon New
Orleans. As Barry writes in his account, "Rising Tide,"
the disaster ripped the veil off the genteel, feudal relations
between whites and blacks, and revealed the festering iniquities.
Blacks were rounded up into work camps and held by armed guards.
They were prevented from leaving as the waters rose. A steamer,
the Capitol, played "Bye Bye Blackbird" as it sailed
away. The racist violence that followed the floods helped persuade
many blacks to move north.
Civic leaders intentionally flooded poor and middle-class areas to
ease the water's pressure on the city, and then reneged on
promises to compensate those whose homes were destroyed. That
helped fuel the populist anger that led to Huey Long's success.
Across the country people demanded that the federal government get
involved in disaster relief, helping to set the stage for the New
Deal. The local civic elite turned insular and reactionary, and
New Orleans never really recovered its preflood vibrancy.
We'd like to think that the stories of hurricanes and floods are
always stories of people rallying together to give aid and
comfort. And, indeed, each of America's great floods has prompted
a popular response both generous and inspiring. But floods are
also civic examinations. Amid all the stories that recur with
every disaster - tales of sudden death and miraculous survival,
the displacement and the disease - there is also the testing.
Civic arrangements work or they fail. Leaders are found worthy or
wanting. What's happening in New Orleans and Mississippi today is
a human tragedy. But take a close look at the people you see
wandering, devastated, around New Orleans: they are predominantly
black and poor. The political disturbances are still to
come.—NYTimes
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New Orleans & Black Relief
I was about to email you Kalamu my good friend today, I knew
you would find someway of communicating. I am not sure if we can do anything here in the UK. But I am
seeking permission to reproduce your message in BAA newsletter Until I hear from you may the gods keep you and Nia safe.With love SuAndi
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Rudy,
I would like to pull off something, but not in a group, because
it will become more problematic for me and especially if money is
involved. I wouldn't be able to pull anything off now until
January or February at the latest.
The way we work at Pratt, we must advertise in the
"Compass" which has deadlines. I am going to have to
sell the idea to the powers to be. I think I maybe able to
sell the idea with possibly the help of Reggie
Harris, who works here at Pratt and is also a poet. If I can
get a date and an acceptable fee for him, perhaps these other
people and/or organizations can have him do programs while here in
the area.
But if I try to coordinate an event with others, I do not
believe Pratt will be very helpful.
Just thought I would mention this to you.
As ever,
Herbert
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August 31, 2005
Kalamu Needs Your Help (work)
Hello Rudy,
I see you are a strong brother unfazed by the hardships that we
as a people must endure at times in our lives.
Stay Strong and proactive! Ukali
PS My heart goes out to my people in New Orleans!! If
there was an evacuation order where were the buses for the Blacks
and the poor who had no cars or other means to evacuate. We ask
the question but we know the answer just by looking at what
is going on in New Orleans!!! There were no buses for the Black
and the poor!!!
http://www.geocities.com/journeytothemotherland/index.html
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After thinking about Kalamu’s situation and
those of others affected by the storm in NOLA like Vera of
Community Bookstore, etc., I’ve come up with an idea that may
work. We need to reach out in our networks and find out who
needs support and we might best use the Internet to enable the
support.
Each person will have a different way in which they
will accept support. Kalamu has stated that he needs work.
If he could send me a short piece on each of his services along
with related fees, I could pass that information on to my
networks.
Also, he might want to reach out to E.
Ethelbert Miller, Director of the African-American Resource
Center at Howard University and a poet. He has significant
connections within educational institutional networks.
Vernard
posted 1 September 2005
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1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus
Created
By Charles C. Mann
I’m
a big fan of Charles Mann’s previous
book
1491:
New Revelations of the Americas Before
Columbus, in which he
provides a sweeping and provocative
examination of North and South America
prior to the arrival of Christopher
Columbus. It’s exhaustively researched
but so wonderfully written that it’s
anything but exhausting to read. With
his follow-up,
1493, Mann has taken it to a
new, truly global level. Building on the
groundbreaking work of Alfred Crosby
(author of
The Columbian Exchange and, I’m
proud to say, a fellow Nantucketer),
Mann has written nothing less than the
story of our world: how a planet of what
were once several autonomous continents
is quickly becoming a single,
“globalized” entity.
Mann not only talked to countless
scientists and researchers; he visited
the places he writes about, and as a
consequence, the book has a marvelously
wide-ranging yet personal feel as we
follow Mann from one far-flung corner of
the world to the next. And always, the
prose is masterful. In telling the
improbable story of how Spanish and
Chinese cultures collided in the
Philippines in the sixteenth century, he
takes us to the island of Mindoro whose
“southern coast consists of a number of
small bays, one next to another like
tooth marks in an apple.” We learn how
the spread of malaria, the potato,
tobacco, guano, rubber plants, and sugar
cane have disrupted and convulsed the
planet and will continue to do so until
we are finally living on one integrated
or at least close-to-integrated Earth.
Whether or not the human instigators of
all this remarkable change will survive
the process they helped to initiate more
than five hundred years ago remains,
Mann suggests in this monumental and
revelatory book, an open question. |
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The Persistence of the Color Line
Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency
By Randall Kennedy
Among the best things about
The Persistence of the Color Line
is watching Mr. Kennedy hash through the
positions about Mr. Obama staked out by
black commentators on the left and
right, from Stanley Crouch and Cornel
West to Juan Williams and Tavis Smiley.
He can be pointed. Noting the way Mr.
Smiley consistently “voiced skepticism
regarding whether blacks should back
Obama” . . .
The
finest chapter in
The Persistence of the Color Line
is so resonant, and so personal, it
could nearly be the basis for a book of
its own. That chapter is titled
“Reverend Wright and My Father:
Reflections on Blacks and Patriotism.”
Recalling some of the criticisms of
America’s past made by Mr. Obama’s
former pastor, Mr. Kennedy writes with
feeling about his own father, who put
each of his three of his children
through Princeton but who “never forgave
American society for its racist
mistreatment of him and those whom he
most loved.” His father distrusted
the police, who had frequently called
him “boy,” and rejected patriotism. Mr.
Kennedy’s father “relished Muhammad
Ali’s quip that the Vietcong had never
called him ‘nigger.’ ” The author places
his father, and Mr. Wright, in
sympathetic historical light. |
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The White Masters
of the World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest / Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
Enjoy!
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The
Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding
of Haiti
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ChickenBones Store
(Books, DVDs, Music, and more)
update 20
January 2012
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