See
http://www.noolmusic.com/videos_2/biggie_and_tupac_documentary_pt_1_music.php
see
http://www.noolmusic.com/videos_2/biggie_and_tupac_documentary_pt_3_music.php
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Royal Star
Brightly brightly
Tepid star
You shine so brightly
Yet languish so far.
by Raymond Enisuoh
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_2000/lecture6.stm
Tepid star
You shine so brightly
Yet languish so far.
by Raymond Enisuoh
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/reith_2000/lecture6.stm
Cemetery
Strong sense of peace
Settled souls
Unmarked graves
Hide behind familiar names
A woman and man
Brushing away the cobwebs.
By Raymond Enisuoh
Settled souls
Unmarked graves
Hide behind familiar names
A woman and man
Brushing away the cobwebs.
By Raymond Enisuoh
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Titanic
Oh! Nighttime weeping
Oh! What a treasonous sound
To escape on the morrow
Both buck and the hound.
by Raymond Enisuoh
Leonardo DiCaprio
http://www.leonardodicaprio.com/
Oh! What a treasonous sound
To escape on the morrow
Both buck and the hound.
by Raymond Enisuoh
Leonardo DiCaprio
http://www.leonardodicaprio.com/
Closure
Your taste delicious
Like a chocolate gateaux
In the midnight hour.
Your anger festering
From childhood wounds
Never fully resolved.
Your smile wide
As a motorway junction.
No speeding please.
We were made for another.
By Raymond Enisuoh
Like a chocolate gateaux
In the midnight hour.
Your anger festering
From childhood wounds
Never fully resolved.
Your smile wide
As a motorway junction.
No speeding please.
We were made for another.
By Raymond Enisuoh
naughty
Romantic similes
Left on my answer phone
At the crack of dawn
Convince me
Of the intimacy
Behind a long distance call.
Never fully articulated
But digested over time
Our thoughts become one
Merged into destiny-
As we both wonder
Who hung up first.
No matter.
Our bond
Strengthens over time
Recurring anxieties
Over fidelity
And commitment
Fade and blend into the years.
Our future
On the tongue tips of angels
Who scan the horizon -
Proclaiming that
God is love and all else
Just a misdemeanour
By Raymond Enisuoh
Left on my answer phone
At the crack of dawn
Convince me
Of the intimacy
Behind a long distance call.
Never fully articulated
But digested over time
Our thoughts become one
Merged into destiny-
As we both wonder
Who hung up first.
No matter.
Our bond
Strengthens over time
Recurring anxieties
Over fidelity
And commitment
Fade and blend into the years.
Our future
On the tongue tips of angels
Who scan the horizon -
Proclaiming that
God is love and all else
Just a misdemeanour
By Raymond Enisuoh
9 Months
A kiss to remember
A night to forget.
One betrayal to seek vengeance
One love to forfeit.
By Raymond Enisuoh
Brook Advisory Centre
Sexual Health Advice for young people.
0161 2373 001
http://www.brook.org.uk/content/
A night to forget.
One betrayal to seek vengeance
One love to forfeit.
By Raymond Enisuoh
Brook Advisory Centre
Sexual Health Advice for young people.
0161 2373 001
http://www.brook.org.uk/content/
Monday, 26 May 2008
Saturday, 24 May 2008
UK-Black disabled people losing out on jobs, says new report
(Archives)
UK-Black disabled people losing out on jobs, says new report
By Raymond Enisuoh
The Disability Grapevine Online Newspaper: Issue #31The Disability Grapevine Online World Newspaper: Issue #19Monday, July 31, 2006Year
http://www.disabilitygrapevine.com/
****************************************************Please Title of Article: Black disabled people losing out on jobs, says new reportArticle:A new study on disabled black people and employment has found that they areworse off than other people with disabilities and that disability organisationsare failing to acknowledge the racial disadvantage they suffer.Raymond EnisuohBlack disabled people need better representationFor disabled people, carers and those with long term impairments from ourcommunities to have a real say in the decision making process in the UK, we haveto be there too.National Council of Disabled People, Carers..from Black CommunutyA new study on disabled black people and employment has found that they areworse off than other people with disabilities and that disability organisationsare failing to acknowledge the racial disadvantage they suffer.The report: Ethnicity, Disability and Work, commissioned by the Royal NationalInstitute for the Blind (RNIB) which included interviews with 28 people ofAfrican origin and 20 people of African Caribbean origin, shows that some blackpeople feel that the political agenda of disabled organisations tend to givetheir concerns a very low priority and consequently voluntary and communityorganisations are not seen as being particularly helpful in securing employmentfor disabled blacks.Specifically, the report claims that “there is a tension” between theperceptions of disadvantages that arise from “disabilism” [discriminatory,oppressive or abusive behaviour arising from the belief that disabled people areinferior to others] and those resulting from racism.The report recommends that both statutory and voluntary disability organisationsshould focus on placing race higher up the agenda and should reconsider theirown attitudes and practices to ensure that they meet the requirements of racerelations legislation, as well as their obligations under disabilitylegislation.The report calls on the government to establish a quota system for employingblacks with sensory disability and suggests job applications should not includea declaration of disability until after the short-listing stage. Only 15 percent of black adults [and those termed “ethnic minorities”] with sensoryimpairments in the UK are in employment according to this study.The three-year project is the first major study on this issue which gives avoice to some of the concerns of black disabled people whose views are oftenignored or neglected by the mainstream. Black Britain tried to contact JulieCharles, the founder and chair of Equalities National Council [an independententerprise run by its service users] for this story but she was unavailable.But a release by the emerging National Council of Disabled People, Carers andthose with long term impairments from the black community affirmed their beliefthat the needs of black disabled people were not adequately catered for.The release said: “For disabled people, carers and those with long termimpairments from our communities to have a real say in the decision makingprocess in the UK, we have to be there too. Not as a tokenistic lonely minorityfigure but collectively and as a decisive voice on policy. If we are notrepresented nationally then our needs will not get the recognition they rightlydeserve.”David Sessay, 60, is originally from Sierra Leone, has lived in Leeds for manyyears and is registered blind due to chronic glaucoma. Sessay was forced to giveup his job and business due to his sight loss and has experienced the lack ofjob opportunities available for disabled Africans and African Caribbeans in thiscountry first hand.Disabled issues are geared to the mainstream viewBlack disabled people can become socially excluded when their needs are notcatered for.Employment issues are rough, extremely rough. I could go on and on. Basicallyit is very discriminatory and everything is geared to the mainstream view ofthings and not ours. They don’t understand our issues.Gary Powell, Chair of the Black Disabled People’s AssociationSessay told Black Britain: “If it wasn’t for the generosity of my kids I wouldhave been a vagrant going out and begging for my daily meal even though I’dpreviously worked all my life. RNIB is one of those organisations that are toofragmented; they should play a more important role. I told the RNIB that I wouldhelp them just to make African Caribbean people more aware.”Gary Powell, Chair of the Black Disabled People Association agrees with thestudies findings that “disablism - like racism - can be institutionalised” andclaims that employment issues are near the top of this list.Powell told Black Britain: “Employment issues are rough, extremely rough. Icould go on and on. Basically it is very discriminatory and everything is gearedto the mainstream view of things and not ours. They don’t understand ourissues.”Powell, however, argues that for black disabled people there really is nofunctional difference between disabilism and racism.Powell told Black Britain: “Disabilism and racism-you can’t separate the two.They are inseparable. It’s all very well focusing on race but if you aredisabled as well it makes it even worse, so I wouldn’t even attempt to say thatone has more priority than the other.”The Chair has mixed feelings on the studies suggestion that “disabilityorganisations, both statutory and voluntary, must focus on raising ‘race’ higherup the agenda.” claiming that in practice this is not as straightforward as itseems.Powell told Black Britain: “That depends on what context that you use race in.What I’ve found is that it’s more people from disadvantaged communities. Race isfeatured but that tends to be very broad, certain races or groups sufferdifferently from us because of different cultural or economic problems.”Powell concluded by stating his own recommendations when dealing with disabledpeople from the black community. He claims that until black people start to dothings for themselves and feed into the mainstream then the mainstream will keepassuming exactly what it is that black people really need.Powell told Black Britain: “Black disabled people need to be consulted more.It’s a two way thing but I think that what needs to be done is betterconsultation so that that they can get a better understanding and really justnarrow the culture down.”Last year Disability Rights commission chairman Bert Massie sparked hugecontroversy when he appeared to claim that disabled people experience moreprofound exclusion that black people.Massie told a press briefing at the launch of the national debate on disability:“Neglect and institutionalised exclusion is even more profound for disabledpeople than those barriers correctly highlighted in Lord McPherson’s report onthe murder of Stephen Lawrence.”DGV
The Author's views reflect only their opinion and do not necessarily reflectthat of The Disability Grapevine
UK-Black disabled people losing out on jobs, says new report
By Raymond Enisuoh
The Disability Grapevine Online Newspaper: Issue #31The Disability Grapevine Online World Newspaper: Issue #19Monday, July 31, 2006Year
http://www.disabilitygrapevine.com/
****************************************************Please Title of Article: Black disabled people losing out on jobs, says new reportArticle:A new study on disabled black people and employment has found that they areworse off than other people with disabilities and that disability organisationsare failing to acknowledge the racial disadvantage they suffer.Raymond EnisuohBlack disabled people need better representationFor disabled people, carers and those with long term impairments from ourcommunities to have a real say in the decision making process in the UK, we haveto be there too.National Council of Disabled People, Carers..from Black CommunutyA new study on disabled black people and employment has found that they areworse off than other people with disabilities and that disability organisationsare failing to acknowledge the racial disadvantage they suffer.The report: Ethnicity, Disability and Work, commissioned by the Royal NationalInstitute for the Blind (RNIB) which included interviews with 28 people ofAfrican origin and 20 people of African Caribbean origin, shows that some blackpeople feel that the political agenda of disabled organisations tend to givetheir concerns a very low priority and consequently voluntary and communityorganisations are not seen as being particularly helpful in securing employmentfor disabled blacks.Specifically, the report claims that “there is a tension” between theperceptions of disadvantages that arise from “disabilism” [discriminatory,oppressive or abusive behaviour arising from the belief that disabled people areinferior to others] and those resulting from racism.The report recommends that both statutory and voluntary disability organisationsshould focus on placing race higher up the agenda and should reconsider theirown attitudes and practices to ensure that they meet the requirements of racerelations legislation, as well as their obligations under disabilitylegislation.The report calls on the government to establish a quota system for employingblacks with sensory disability and suggests job applications should not includea declaration of disability until after the short-listing stage. Only 15 percent of black adults [and those termed “ethnic minorities”] with sensoryimpairments in the UK are in employment according to this study.The three-year project is the first major study on this issue which gives avoice to some of the concerns of black disabled people whose views are oftenignored or neglected by the mainstream. Black Britain tried to contact JulieCharles, the founder and chair of Equalities National Council [an independententerprise run by its service users] for this story but she was unavailable.But a release by the emerging National Council of Disabled People, Carers andthose with long term impairments from the black community affirmed their beliefthat the needs of black disabled people were not adequately catered for.The release said: “For disabled people, carers and those with long termimpairments from our communities to have a real say in the decision makingprocess in the UK, we have to be there too. Not as a tokenistic lonely minorityfigure but collectively and as a decisive voice on policy. If we are notrepresented nationally then our needs will not get the recognition they rightlydeserve.”David Sessay, 60, is originally from Sierra Leone, has lived in Leeds for manyyears and is registered blind due to chronic glaucoma. Sessay was forced to giveup his job and business due to his sight loss and has experienced the lack ofjob opportunities available for disabled Africans and African Caribbeans in thiscountry first hand.Disabled issues are geared to the mainstream viewBlack disabled people can become socially excluded when their needs are notcatered for.Employment issues are rough, extremely rough. I could go on and on. Basicallyit is very discriminatory and everything is geared to the mainstream view ofthings and not ours. They don’t understand our issues.Gary Powell, Chair of the Black Disabled People’s AssociationSessay told Black Britain: “If it wasn’t for the generosity of my kids I wouldhave been a vagrant going out and begging for my daily meal even though I’dpreviously worked all my life. RNIB is one of those organisations that are toofragmented; they should play a more important role. I told the RNIB that I wouldhelp them just to make African Caribbean people more aware.”Gary Powell, Chair of the Black Disabled People Association agrees with thestudies findings that “disablism - like racism - can be institutionalised” andclaims that employment issues are near the top of this list.Powell told Black Britain: “Employment issues are rough, extremely rough. Icould go on and on. Basically it is very discriminatory and everything is gearedto the mainstream view of things and not ours. They don’t understand ourissues.”Powell, however, argues that for black disabled people there really is nofunctional difference between disabilism and racism.Powell told Black Britain: “Disabilism and racism-you can’t separate the two.They are inseparable. It’s all very well focusing on race but if you aredisabled as well it makes it even worse, so I wouldn’t even attempt to say thatone has more priority than the other.”The Chair has mixed feelings on the studies suggestion that “disabilityorganisations, both statutory and voluntary, must focus on raising ‘race’ higherup the agenda.” claiming that in practice this is not as straightforward as itseems.Powell told Black Britain: “That depends on what context that you use race in.What I’ve found is that it’s more people from disadvantaged communities. Race isfeatured but that tends to be very broad, certain races or groups sufferdifferently from us because of different cultural or economic problems.”Powell concluded by stating his own recommendations when dealing with disabledpeople from the black community. He claims that until black people start to dothings for themselves and feed into the mainstream then the mainstream will keepassuming exactly what it is that black people really need.Powell told Black Britain: “Black disabled people need to be consulted more.It’s a two way thing but I think that what needs to be done is betterconsultation so that that they can get a better understanding and really justnarrow the culture down.”Last year Disability Rights commission chairman Bert Massie sparked hugecontroversy when he appeared to claim that disabled people experience moreprofound exclusion that black people.Massie told a press briefing at the launch of the national debate on disability:“Neglect and institutionalised exclusion is even more profound for disabledpeople than those barriers correctly highlighted in Lord McPherson’s report onthe murder of Stephen Lawrence.”DGV
The Author's views reflect only their opinion and do not necessarily reflectthat of The Disability Grapevine
Christopher Columbus tortured slaves, says official By Raymond Enisuoh
(Archives)
See
http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/forum/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/read/3658
Posted By: TyehimbaDate: 26, July 06, at 12:20 a.m.
Christopher Columbus tortured slaves, say official
Posted By: TyehimbaDate: 26, July 06, at 12:20 a.m.
Christopher Columbus tortured slaves, say official historical documents
Category: slavery Dated: 24/07/2006 An historian in Seville, Spain has studied historical documents which reveal that Christopher Columbus was a tyrant who tortuted slaves.
Raymond Enisuoh
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance Christopher Columbus was a tyrant who presided over a bloody reign of terror according to documents revealed 500 years after his death.
The mercenary and pirate who reportedly discovered America frequently tortured slaves and starved his subjects in colonies on the Caribbean island, Hispaniola.
Columbus also mistreated native people when he was viceroy of the capital of contemporary Dominican Republic.
After arriving in the Caribbean in 1492 Columbus eventually fell from grace 8 years later because of his sadistic conduct in Santo Domingo. In 1500 Columbus was brought back from the city as a prisoner at the behest of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, to stand trial.
Consuelo Varela, a historian in Seville who has studied the documents believes they are the most important Columbus revelations for a century.
Varela said: “We hear of a poor boy who was caught stealing wheat grain. They cut off his ears and nose and put shackles on him and made him a slave. Columbus ran the colony with an iron fist.”
As the world marks the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ death in 1506 critics say some of the negative accounts of Columbus’s life may come from his enemies.
DNA tests on Columbus’s descendants are also underway in various countries to pinpoint once and for all his definite birthplace - which was heretofore said to have been Genoa in Italy.
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance [TCDA] however, is a longstanding international coalition of over 80 social justice organisations that are committed to challenging traditional ethnocentric views of Columbus as a pioneer and sole discoverer of the Americas.
The TCDA said: “Our opposition to Columbus and Columbus Day is not anti-Italian. We celebrate the beautiful , positive contributions of Italians around the globe. In the same vein we reject the position that Italian culture can or should be a celebration of colonisation and slavery.”
The Jamaican Reggae world has also long had their reservations about the legacy of Christopher Columbus. On his track Columbus reggae legend Burning Spear labelled Christopher Columbus “a damn blasted liar” On Peter Tosh’s song Here Comes the Judge, Tosh’s magistrate tries and convicts Columbus and others for a myriad of crimes against black people.
See
http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/forum/webbbs_config.pl/noframes/read/3658
Posted By: TyehimbaDate: 26, July 06, at 12:20 a.m.
Christopher Columbus tortured slaves, say official
Posted By: TyehimbaDate: 26, July 06, at 12:20 a.m.
Christopher Columbus tortured slaves, say official historical documents
Category: slavery Dated: 24/07/2006 An historian in Seville, Spain has studied historical documents which reveal that Christopher Columbus was a tyrant who tortuted slaves.
Raymond Enisuoh
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance Christopher Columbus was a tyrant who presided over a bloody reign of terror according to documents revealed 500 years after his death.
The mercenary and pirate who reportedly discovered America frequently tortured slaves and starved his subjects in colonies on the Caribbean island, Hispaniola.
Columbus also mistreated native people when he was viceroy of the capital of contemporary Dominican Republic.
After arriving in the Caribbean in 1492 Columbus eventually fell from grace 8 years later because of his sadistic conduct in Santo Domingo. In 1500 Columbus was brought back from the city as a prisoner at the behest of the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, to stand trial.
Consuelo Varela, a historian in Seville who has studied the documents believes they are the most important Columbus revelations for a century.
Varela said: “We hear of a poor boy who was caught stealing wheat grain. They cut off his ears and nose and put shackles on him and made him a slave. Columbus ran the colony with an iron fist.”
As the world marks the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ death in 1506 critics say some of the negative accounts of Columbus’s life may come from his enemies.
DNA tests on Columbus’s descendants are also underway in various countries to pinpoint once and for all his definite birthplace - which was heretofore said to have been Genoa in Italy.
The Transform Columbus Day Alliance [TCDA] however, is a longstanding international coalition of over 80 social justice organisations that are committed to challenging traditional ethnocentric views of Columbus as a pioneer and sole discoverer of the Americas.
The TCDA said: “Our opposition to Columbus and Columbus Day is not anti-Italian. We celebrate the beautiful , positive contributions of Italians around the globe. In the same vein we reject the position that Italian culture can or should be a celebration of colonisation and slavery.”
The Jamaican Reggae world has also long had their reservations about the legacy of Christopher Columbus. On his track Columbus reggae legend Burning Spear labelled Christopher Columbus “a damn blasted liar” On Peter Tosh’s song Here Comes the Judge, Tosh’s magistrate tries and convicts Columbus and others for a myriad of crimes against black people.
Archives: Raymond Enisuoh Meets Maya Angelou
See:
http://www.emmaglobalvillage.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=294&Itemid=181
And still, like dust, she rises-Introducing Maya Angelou • New Nation • 10 June 2002
New Nation - 10 June 2002
By Raymond Enisuoh
‘Black, bitter and beautiful, she speaks of our survival.’ -- the late author James Baldwin on Maya Angelou.
The undisputed highlight of 2002’s EMMA (Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards) presentations was when African-American author and poet Dr Maya Angelou received a thoroughly deserved lifetime achievement accolade.
Angelou, one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary writers, is no stranger to prestigious occasions. She has, after all, previously performed her poetry at former US President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, Minister Louis Farrakhan’s historic Million Man March, in Washington DC, as well as a ceremony to mark the United Nations 50th anniversary. She has received honorary degrees from countless colleges and universities.
But as Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow slowly introduced Angelou, the emotion of the moment became too much and the regal scribe almost burst into tears. A lengthy standing ovation followed and practically everyone in attendance that night, including famous actors, musicians, comedians, and singers, acknowledged that they were in the presence of greatness.
“She is an impossible woman to sum up,” Snow concluded, to much applause, “Save that, she is a phenomenal woman.”
The following afternoon, I arrive to meet Dr Angelou, as she insists on being called (Ms Angelou you can get away with, but definitely not Maya), at the Basil St Hotel in Knightsbridge. She is already seated at the lounge with a small entourage when I arrive and immediately ushers me to sit closer to her. “Why, you look younger than the morning sun,” she chuckles.
After offering to pour me a cold drink, Dr Angelou probes me about my own family history and the knowledge of my family surname before she begins to answer any questions. Her voice is low but grandiose and her manner maternal. “I really meant what I said last night,” she admits.
“EMMA is and has a possibility of being, for a number of people, a rainbow in the clouds. Because a number of young men and women are striving in their professions.
“Whether Gary Younge [fellow EMMA Award winner] in journalism, or whether the young people in the theatre and film. They are striving to find a footing and the ground that they are on is awfully slippery. Especially being black or Asian. It’s a slippery ground and dark days.”
Dr Angelou has an uncanny habit of making the bleak and depressing sound eloquent and optimistic. It’s a gift that has allowed her to reach thousands of lost souls over the years merely with the power of her words.
“So the EMMA is something to look up to see that it is possible and there is hope. I was particularly moved, almost to tears that night. I just had to hold on and breathe deeply.”
It’s rather strange that such a successful and seasoned US author would place so much importance on a British awards show, especially one dedicated solely to ethnic minorities. But Dr Angelou is genuinely emotional. “Nobody owes me anything,” she states matter-of-factly. “When people in another country vote to honour me, my sense of appreciation makes me vulnerable. I’m very pleased. I love London. I wrote most of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in London. I started it at a hotel on Seven Sisters Road. More recently, I’ve been visiting and staying in Kentish Town.”
Born Marguerite Annie Johnson on 4 April 1926 in St Louis, USA, Dr Angelou has always been a traveller. Her divorced parents shuttled her and her late brother, Bailey, between St Louis, Arkansas and San Francisco for much of their childhood. It was her time in Arkansas that provided the inspiration for her classic 1970 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In their memoir, which was nominated for the 1970 National Book Award, she depicts what it means to grow up as a black female in the overtly racist American South. This was a childhood burden only superseded by the trauma of being raped, aged eight, by her mother’s boyfriend. After finally naming her attacker, a young Angelou had to endure the subsequent court case and murder of her rapist by her uncles. Fearing that her words had the ability to kill, she later became mute for five years. She did, nonetheless, manage to display a prodigious, creative genius that she later learnt to express in the form of singing, acting, dancing, writing and black political activism.
It’s a blessing for all of us that Angelou did reclaim her voice after her childhood ordeals. It’s a voice that has brought the joys and struggles of the African-American community she was reared in to the world stage. It is also a voice that has highlighted international oppression and racism, most notably in Africa, Europe and Britain.
Last week Dr Angelou was scheduled to headline ‘An Evening with Maya Angelou’ with the London Community Gospel Choir to raise money for the Stephen Lawrence charitable fund. On her last such visit, she supported the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who in turn named their Haringey centre in her honour.
“I just read about that,” she muses on the Stephen Lawrence campaign. “I felt that I wanted to do something. And Jon Snow is a friend of mine. Our families go away for summer once a year. He just asked me and I said I was glad to help raise money.”
She does admit, however, that black British news doesn’t pull much draw in the US and that she is forced to rely on subscription to a British newspaper and friends for updates. Maybe due to the overlooking presence of a Time Warner publicity agent, Dr Angelou doesn’t go into too much detail about her new book, A Song Flung Up To Heaven, although you get the impression that she wants to. “It’s the sixth in an autobiographical series that began with I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” is all she says on the matter.
The other instalments in her widely acclaimed autobiographical series are 1974’s Gather Together In My Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart Of A Woman (1981) and All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (1984).
A Song Flung Up To Heaven details her sojourn to Ghana and emotional return to the US to work in the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.
Dr Angelou is more forthcoming about her recent poetry, especially in the aftermath of the terrorism and war that have haunted the US of late. “Everything affects my writing, from the sun coming out to the sun not coming out,” she says. “I’ve been writing more inspirational verses since September 11th. Reminding me the we, as human beings, are more alike than we are unalike. And to stop making the decision that because a person is of a different skin tone or uses a different language, that person is really different than us.
“Everybody in the world, whether it be Birmingham, Alabama or Birmingham England, wants safe streets,” she contemplates.
“Everybody in the world wants a job, wants a good job and to be paid a little more than they are worth. Everybody wants somebody to love and somewhere to party on a Saturday night [laughs]. So the poetry I have been doing recently has used that central theme. I haven’t been doing any major writing but I have been working on that.”
While many may be more acquainted with her prose, Dr Angelou’s poetry has been equally as enthralling. Collection titles include I Shall Not Be Moved, Phenomenal Woman and On the Pulse Of Morning, can be found in libraries, bookstores and classrooms around the world. Yet the most well-known and universal of her poems, Still I Rise, will probably be etched into eternity in a similar vein to Rudyard Kipling’s If.
“It takes a long time for me to create a poem like that,” she reveals. “There is something in the human spirit that continues to boggle my mind. That we go to bed with pain and fear and terror and loneliness. Yet we awaken, we arise; we see other human beings and say, ‘Good morning’. As the Cockneys say, that makes me come over all queer.
“So I just started to write: ‘You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies / You may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I’ll arise.”
At the age of 72, it’s amazing that Dr Angelou manages to maintain such an inspiring work ethic. Although she has little to prove any more in the field of literature, she still gets up early to go to a hotel room to write before returning home to prepare dinner. She also teaches one semester a year at Maine University.
So as one of the great stalwarts who have paved the way for black arts, along with the likes of Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka, what are her thoughts on the current African-American literary scene?
“Today is healthy,” she claims. “I mean, there is Cornell West, he’s very, very wonderful. Of course there is Toni Morrison [Nobel Literature Prize winner] and I’m there somewhere. Henry Louis Gates Jr is interesting but a philosopher really. There’s also Guy Johnson whose book is called Standing At The Scratching Line. He’s my son,” she whispers tenderly.
“There a slew of young writers coming out with books but I can’t keep up with them. One always wishes for more, you must. It’s not half what it should be but it’s getting there. We just have to continue pushing.”
http://www.emmaglobalvillage.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=294&Itemid=181
And still, like dust, she rises-Introducing Maya Angelou • New Nation • 10 June 2002
New Nation - 10 June 2002
By Raymond Enisuoh
‘Black, bitter and beautiful, she speaks of our survival.’ -- the late author James Baldwin on Maya Angelou.
The undisputed highlight of 2002’s EMMA (Ethnic Multicultural Media Awards) presentations was when African-American author and poet Dr Maya Angelou received a thoroughly deserved lifetime achievement accolade.
Angelou, one of the world’s most celebrated contemporary writers, is no stranger to prestigious occasions. She has, after all, previously performed her poetry at former US President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration, Minister Louis Farrakhan’s historic Million Man March, in Washington DC, as well as a ceremony to mark the United Nations 50th anniversary. She has received honorary degrees from countless colleges and universities.
But as Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow slowly introduced Angelou, the emotion of the moment became too much and the regal scribe almost burst into tears. A lengthy standing ovation followed and practically everyone in attendance that night, including famous actors, musicians, comedians, and singers, acknowledged that they were in the presence of greatness.
“She is an impossible woman to sum up,” Snow concluded, to much applause, “Save that, she is a phenomenal woman.”
The following afternoon, I arrive to meet Dr Angelou, as she insists on being called (Ms Angelou you can get away with, but definitely not Maya), at the Basil St Hotel in Knightsbridge. She is already seated at the lounge with a small entourage when I arrive and immediately ushers me to sit closer to her. “Why, you look younger than the morning sun,” she chuckles.
After offering to pour me a cold drink, Dr Angelou probes me about my own family history and the knowledge of my family surname before she begins to answer any questions. Her voice is low but grandiose and her manner maternal. “I really meant what I said last night,” she admits.
“EMMA is and has a possibility of being, for a number of people, a rainbow in the clouds. Because a number of young men and women are striving in their professions.
“Whether Gary Younge [fellow EMMA Award winner] in journalism, or whether the young people in the theatre and film. They are striving to find a footing and the ground that they are on is awfully slippery. Especially being black or Asian. It’s a slippery ground and dark days.”
Dr Angelou has an uncanny habit of making the bleak and depressing sound eloquent and optimistic. It’s a gift that has allowed her to reach thousands of lost souls over the years merely with the power of her words.
“So the EMMA is something to look up to see that it is possible and there is hope. I was particularly moved, almost to tears that night. I just had to hold on and breathe deeply.”
It’s rather strange that such a successful and seasoned US author would place so much importance on a British awards show, especially one dedicated solely to ethnic minorities. But Dr Angelou is genuinely emotional. “Nobody owes me anything,” she states matter-of-factly. “When people in another country vote to honour me, my sense of appreciation makes me vulnerable. I’m very pleased. I love London. I wrote most of I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in London. I started it at a hotel on Seven Sisters Road. More recently, I’ve been visiting and staying in Kentish Town.”
Born Marguerite Annie Johnson on 4 April 1926 in St Louis, USA, Dr Angelou has always been a traveller. Her divorced parents shuttled her and her late brother, Bailey, between St Louis, Arkansas and San Francisco for much of their childhood. It was her time in Arkansas that provided the inspiration for her classic 1970 autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.
In their memoir, which was nominated for the 1970 National Book Award, she depicts what it means to grow up as a black female in the overtly racist American South. This was a childhood burden only superseded by the trauma of being raped, aged eight, by her mother’s boyfriend. After finally naming her attacker, a young Angelou had to endure the subsequent court case and murder of her rapist by her uncles. Fearing that her words had the ability to kill, she later became mute for five years. She did, nonetheless, manage to display a prodigious, creative genius that she later learnt to express in the form of singing, acting, dancing, writing and black political activism.
It’s a blessing for all of us that Angelou did reclaim her voice after her childhood ordeals. It’s a voice that has brought the joys and struggles of the African-American community she was reared in to the world stage. It is also a voice that has highlighted international oppression and racism, most notably in Africa, Europe and Britain.
Last week Dr Angelou was scheduled to headline ‘An Evening with Maya Angelou’ with the London Community Gospel Choir to raise money for the Stephen Lawrence charitable fund. On her last such visit, she supported the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who in turn named their Haringey centre in her honour.
“I just read about that,” she muses on the Stephen Lawrence campaign. “I felt that I wanted to do something. And Jon Snow is a friend of mine. Our families go away for summer once a year. He just asked me and I said I was glad to help raise money.”
She does admit, however, that black British news doesn’t pull much draw in the US and that she is forced to rely on subscription to a British newspaper and friends for updates. Maybe due to the overlooking presence of a Time Warner publicity agent, Dr Angelou doesn’t go into too much detail about her new book, A Song Flung Up To Heaven, although you get the impression that she wants to. “It’s the sixth in an autobiographical series that began with I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” is all she says on the matter.
The other instalments in her widely acclaimed autobiographical series are 1974’s Gather Together In My Name, Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas (1976), The Heart Of A Woman (1981) and All God’s Children Need Travelling Shoes (1984).
A Song Flung Up To Heaven details her sojourn to Ghana and emotional return to the US to work in the civil rights movement alongside Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X.
Dr Angelou is more forthcoming about her recent poetry, especially in the aftermath of the terrorism and war that have haunted the US of late. “Everything affects my writing, from the sun coming out to the sun not coming out,” she says. “I’ve been writing more inspirational verses since September 11th. Reminding me the we, as human beings, are more alike than we are unalike. And to stop making the decision that because a person is of a different skin tone or uses a different language, that person is really different than us.
“Everybody in the world, whether it be Birmingham, Alabama or Birmingham England, wants safe streets,” she contemplates.
“Everybody in the world wants a job, wants a good job and to be paid a little more than they are worth. Everybody wants somebody to love and somewhere to party on a Saturday night [laughs]. So the poetry I have been doing recently has used that central theme. I haven’t been doing any major writing but I have been working on that.”
While many may be more acquainted with her prose, Dr Angelou’s poetry has been equally as enthralling. Collection titles include I Shall Not Be Moved, Phenomenal Woman and On the Pulse Of Morning, can be found in libraries, bookstores and classrooms around the world. Yet the most well-known and universal of her poems, Still I Rise, will probably be etched into eternity in a similar vein to Rudyard Kipling’s If.
“It takes a long time for me to create a poem like that,” she reveals. “There is something in the human spirit that continues to boggle my mind. That we go to bed with pain and fear and terror and loneliness. Yet we awaken, we arise; we see other human beings and say, ‘Good morning’. As the Cockneys say, that makes me come over all queer.
“So I just started to write: ‘You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies / You may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I’ll arise.”
At the age of 72, it’s amazing that Dr Angelou manages to maintain such an inspiring work ethic. Although she has little to prove any more in the field of literature, she still gets up early to go to a hotel room to write before returning home to prepare dinner. She also teaches one semester a year at Maine University.
So as one of the great stalwarts who have paved the way for black arts, along with the likes of Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka, what are her thoughts on the current African-American literary scene?
“Today is healthy,” she claims. “I mean, there is Cornell West, he’s very, very wonderful. Of course there is Toni Morrison [Nobel Literature Prize winner] and I’m there somewhere. Henry Louis Gates Jr is interesting but a philosopher really. There’s also Guy Johnson whose book is called Standing At The Scratching Line. He’s my son,” she whispers tenderly.
“There a slew of young writers coming out with books but I can’t keep up with them. One always wishes for more, you must. It’s not half what it should be but it’s getting there. We just have to continue pushing.”
Thursday, 22 May 2008
FATSO
16 stone at 15
I’m not happy being me.
My friends call me Fat Bastard
The Doctor says I’m obese.
I’m not one for exercise
And McDonalds is my favourite meal.
Girls avoid me like the plague
I’ve never even had a feel.
16 stone at 15
So what if I sweat a lot?
I’m number one class-clown
You’ve gotta work with what you’ve got.
I try not to let it get me down
And tell myself its genetic.
‘You’ll never get a job’
My maths teacher says
‘And spend your whole life on benefits!’
16 stone at 15
I throw up when it gets too much.
I feel like John Prescott
But I never learnt to punch!
My face is riddled with acne
I can hardly see my feet.
The whole things too much bother
I’d just prefer to eat.
By Raymond Enisuoh
http://www.edauk.com/ Eating Disorders Association
Youthline: 0845 634 7650
Advice and Support for young people with eating disorders.
I’m not happy being me.
My friends call me Fat Bastard
The Doctor says I’m obese.
I’m not one for exercise
And McDonalds is my favourite meal.
Girls avoid me like the plague
I’ve never even had a feel.
16 stone at 15
So what if I sweat a lot?
I’m number one class-clown
You’ve gotta work with what you’ve got.
I try not to let it get me down
And tell myself its genetic.
‘You’ll never get a job’
My maths teacher says
‘And spend your whole life on benefits!’
16 stone at 15
I throw up when it gets too much.
I feel like John Prescott
But I never learnt to punch!
My face is riddled with acne
I can hardly see my feet.
The whole things too much bother
I’d just prefer to eat.
By Raymond Enisuoh
http://www.edauk.com/ Eating Disorders Association
Youthline: 0845 634 7650
Advice and Support for young people with eating disorders.
Wednesday, 21 May 2008
FELA: 'He Who Carries Death In His Pouch'
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=3602640
FELA
Snake-charmer seduces
King Cobra sways
Through the air.
Behold an audience
Of hard-bitten wills
Frozen by grievous stares.
by Raymond Enisuoh
FELA
Snake-charmer seduces
King Cobra sways
Through the air.
Behold an audience
Of hard-bitten wills
Frozen by grievous stares.
by Raymond Enisuoh
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Shooting At Police : Out Of Control
Gunman Wrote Note To Wife Before Shoot out With Police
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1132001.ece
Police Getting Shot-Guaranteed
See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/mar/10/race.world
Paris: Cop Shooting was enteratainement, but this is REAL..
http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc000041.html
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1132001.ece
Police Getting Shot-Guaranteed
See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/mar/10/race.world
Paris: Cop Shooting was enteratainement, but this is REAL..
http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc000041.html
Thursday, 1 May 2008
Some Of Us By Paradise Gray
Apr 30, 2008 4:38 PM
Some of us - A Poem By Paradise Gray
How can a poem about some of us speak to all of us?By Paradise Gray
Some of us are rich , some of us are poors
ome of us are smart, some I'm not so sure
some of us will live, some of us will die
some of us will laugh, some of us will cry
some of us walk the walk, some us talk the talk
some us make up, some of us breakup
some us of man up, some of us snake up
some of us earn, some of us take
some of us are real, some of us are fake
some of us are are awake, some of us are asleep
some of us are shepards, some of us are sheep
some of us stand up, some of us bitch up
some of us will have victorious hands up, some will need to be stitched up
some of us will yell out, some us will sellout
some of us are free, some of us are slaves
some of us are advanced, some still live in caves
some of us are loving, some of us are hating
some of us are involved, some of us are waiting
some of us are mad, some of us are sadsome of of us are good,
some of us are badsome of us will win,
some of us will loseleft or right column? It's up to you to choose.
Copyright 2008 Paradise Grayhttp://www. myspace. com/paradisegrayhttp://www. 1hood. org
Some of us - A Poem By Paradise Gray
How can a poem about some of us speak to all of us?By Paradise Gray
Some of us are rich , some of us are poors
ome of us are smart, some I'm not so sure
some of us will live, some of us will die
some of us will laugh, some of us will cry
some of us walk the walk, some us talk the talk
some us make up, some of us breakup
some us of man up, some of us snake up
some of us earn, some of us take
some of us are real, some of us are fake
some of us are are awake, some of us are asleep
some of us are shepards, some of us are sheep
some of us stand up, some of us bitch up
some of us will have victorious hands up, some will need to be stitched up
some of us will yell out, some us will sellout
some of us are free, some of us are slaves
some of us are advanced, some still live in caves
some of us are loving, some of us are hating
some of us are involved, some of us are waiting
some of us are mad, some of us are sadsome of of us are good,
some of us are badsome of us will win,
some of us will loseleft or right column? It's up to you to choose.
Copyright 2008 Paradise Grayhttp://www. myspace. com/paradisegrayhttp://www. 1hood. org
Mason
'Never give up!'
A draftsman whispered to me
As our paths crossed
By the shore.
'Love life,'
His counsel reverberated
'Until it is no more.'
by Raymond Enisuoh
A draftsman whispered to me
As our paths crossed
By the shore.
'Love life,'
His counsel reverberated
'Until it is no more.'
by Raymond Enisuoh
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