Stéphane Frédéric Hessel-Occupy WHAT?

What makes one wake up and begin to pay attention? When is enough, enough? Stéphane Frédéric Hessel, former French resistance fighter, member of the committee responsible for drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted by the United Nations in 1948) and the still very spry ninety-three year old former French diplomat and author knows. In Time for Outrage he breaks it down.

This is an excerpt from Time for Outrage: Indignez-vous! by Stephane Hessel. Translation by Marion Duvert. Copyright 2010 by Indigene Editions. Reprinted by permission of Twelve/Hachette Book Group. All rights reserved.

Harry Belafonte: His Song; Your Song; His Way

Harry Belafonte - entertainer, singer, actor, human rights activist  and author of My Song, his recently released memoir, detailing his eighty-four amazing years on this planet, sings his song, his way, grit and all. Sing Your Song, also released this month is the long awaited documentary about Belafonte's life highlighting his dedication to the ongoing struggle for the basic rights of all people. It is searing, poignant and absolutely necessary. A 1963 roundtable of a diverse group of civil rights activists shines light on the many decades of human rights work Harry Belafonte has been engaged in well before the the recording of this historical conversation. 

John Carlos: Speaking Truth to Power

Mexico City Olympics AP

Tommie Smith and John Carlos' Black Power salute during the 1968 Mexico City Olympics was a defining moment for America, the civil rights movement and the many people from all walks of life who stood up and fought for human rights. In The John Carlos Story: The Sports Moment that Changed the World by John Carlos with Dave Zirin, Carlos shares his life story growing up in Harlem and the events that changed the course of history on that podium in 1968. He is a founding member of the Olympic Project for Human Rights.


"My raised right hand stood for the power in black America. Carlos' raised left hand stood for the unity of black America. Together they formed an arch of unity and power. The black scarf around my neck stood for black pride. The black socks with no shoes stood for black poverty in racist America. The totality of our effort was the beginning of black dignity." 
-- Tommie Smith, 1974

"John Carlos' life story is an insightful and gripping look at the times he lived and the Olympics he helped make so memorable. He shows us that the one day that made him famous was only the most outward and visible sign of a touching and thoughtful life."

--Frank Deford

"The John Carlos Story is a blow by blow detail of triumph vs tragedy from the jump. Again Dave Zirin uncovers, and yet illuminates the mere footnotes of this sports history hero with his impeccable balance of truth. This story drills a hole into the myth of black athlete success and worship."

--Chuck D, Public Enemy

"John Carlos is an American hero. And finally he has written a memoir to tell us his story—and a powerful story it is. I couldn't put this book down."

--Michael Moore

Women in Iran: Jasmin Darznik and Family

THE GOOD DAUGHTER

Imagine you and your mother are packing up the house you were raised in.Your father has recently

passed and all that you knew as a child was presumably going into tidy boxes. A photo drops out of a book and you don't recoginze anyone in it. It's a photo of a young girl holding a baby with a man standing next to both of them. You turn to your mother and you ask her who the unknown faces belong to. She looks at the photo and tells you it's a photo of her, her daughter and her husband from another lifetime ago.  

Welcome to the world of The Good Daughter by Jasmin Darznik.

 

“Richly detailed memoir…an engaging account of life in Iran in the 20th century, full of memorable characters whose lives take unexpected turns. The author’s portrayal of Iranian society and 

male-female relations are revealing, and her descriptions of clothing, food and drink are 

especially engrossing…An eye-opening account that disturbs with its depiction of the place of women

in Iranian society, but warms the heart in its portrayal of their gritty endurance.”
- Kirkus

“Darznik’s memoir is a beautifully recounted homage to her mother’s life and struggles.”

         - Booklist

“Startling and moving…I’m betting on this one.”

                - Library Journal

Poet John Murillo : The Pulse of the Community

Photo credit of John Murillo


I've heard it said if you want to know what's happening in any community keep your ears open for the song and music of the poet. John Murillo is just that lyricist. The pulsating rhythms flowing throughout his body of work makes you want to jump up and dance. Check out Ode to A Cross-Fader with its funky beat and moves to match. Enter the Dragon keeps it real as well. 
Up Jump the Boogie published by Cypher Books is John Murillo's first poetry collection. 


 "Up jumps the boogie. That's almost all one needs to say. Murillo is headbreakingly brilliant. I didn't have a favorite poet for this year: Now I do. But with this kind of verve and intelligence and ferocity Murillo just might be a favorite for many years to come."—Junot Diaz



Enter the Dragon
--Los Angeles, California, 1976

For me, the movie starts with a black man,
Leaping into an orbit of badges, tiny moons

Catching the sheen of his perfect black afro.
Arc kicks, karate chops, and thirty cops

On their backs. It starts with the swagger,
The cool lean into the leather front seat

Of the black and white he takes off in,
Deep hallelujahs of moviegoers drowning

Out the wah wah guitar, salt & butter
High-fives, Right on, brother! and Daddy

Glowing so bright he can light the screen
All by himself. This is how it goes down.

Friday night and my father drives us
Home from the late show, two heroes

Cadillacking across King Boulevard.
In the car's dark cab, we jab and clutch,

Jim Kelly and Bruce Lee with popcorn
Breath, and almost miss the lights flashing

In the cracked side mirror. I know what's
Under the seat, but when the uniforms

Approach from the rear quarter panel,
When the fat one leans so far into my father's

Window I can smell his long day's work,
When my father—this John Henry of a man—

Hides his hammer, doesn't buck, tucks away
His baritone, license and registration shaking as if

Showing a bathroom pass to a grade school
Principal, I learn the difference between cinema

And city, between the moviehouse cheers
Of old men and the silence that gets us home.
Source of the text - Murillo, John.  Up Jump the Boogie.  New York: Cypher Books, 2010, pp. 17-18.

Three Giants

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth was born in 1922.
Professor Derrick Bell was born in 1930.
Innovator Steve Jobs was born in 1955.

On Wednesday, October 5, 2011 they transitioned to another plane.
May they continue to raise some hell and spread joy for all eternity.

Billie Holiday: Sweet and Sour

Lady Day. A super spectacular spirit.  Most know of her famous rendition of God Bless the Child. One of my favorites is All of Me. Her voice and the music in this version is playful, raw and fabulous. Her style and vitality, despite the racism and addictions, inspired many in the decades after her death. The city of Baltimore rededicated a statue of her in 2009 more than twenty years after the initial unveiling. In 1939 Billie Holiday recorded Strange Fruit, depicting the brutal Jim Crow ways of life for Blacks in the United States. Billie took a stand and risked her life and career for "telling the truth" during a very dangerous period in the history of this country.

Strange Fruit
Songwriters: Allan, Lewis; Pearl, Maurice; Wiggins, Dwayne P.

Southern trees bear strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the popular trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is fruit for the crows to pluckFor the rain to gather, for the wind to suck
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop
Here is a strange and bitter cry

Strange Fruit lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., EMI Music Publishing

Photo Library of Congress