Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

SCENE REPORT Tracking the Asian Dance Diaspora With Eastern Margins and Eternal Dragonz By James Gui January 07, 2022

Regional identity is paramount in dance music. Take The Warehouse in Chicago, or New Yorks Paradise Garage; grime in London, gabber in Rotterdamlocality is part and parcel of the mythos and history of the rave. The contributions of what Paul Gilroy calls The Black Atlantic are ingrained in the DNA of dance music today; four-on-the-floor, dembow rhythms, the Amen break, and countless other snippets of artistry from the African diaspora have largely been responsible for the contemporary proliferation of electronic music styles. Colliding and combining with Latin folk rhythms, dance music genres have exponentiated into reggaetn, funk carioca, and the vibrant spectrum in between.

But Asian dance music is a bit harder to pin down. It is, in part, an issue of terminology; the term Asian is at once expansive and constricting. Used to encapsulate a broad swath of disparate countries and cultures, Asian is a descriptor that shifts its focus based on local histories of migration. In the UK, Asian mostly refers to South Asians; tune into BBC Asian Network and youll mostly find programming from the Indian subcontinent. On the other hand, Asian American as a political and social identity emerged in the late 60s through the efforts of predominantly East Asian and Filipino activists inspired by and working with the Black Power movement. The nebulous construct of Asian identity is both myth and reality, as much imposed by the Western gaze as imagined by diasporic subjectivity. The same could be said, of course, about the African and Latin American diasporas, which are similarly fragmented and contested.

So the issue of picturing Asian dance music might lie elsewhere, from visibility of Asian genres (raise your hand if you can name a budots track!) to disjointed migration patterns. Entanglements with the West complicate matters, bringing up issues of Western cultural imperialism (see: Goa trance in the 1990s). But rather than sticking to a unifying idea of Asian identity or locality, the two collectives at the heart of this pieceEternal Dragonz (EDZ) and Eastern Margins (EM)define themselves more by their multi-locality, their fragmentation. They have their own niches and origins: EDZ, began in the mid-2010s as a tongue-in-cheek Facebook group recalling the AZN pride era of the 00s, and eventually morphed into a label releasing music and mixtapes; EM, started in 2018 as a Lunar New Year party in London, and became a prolific music collective that releases music and publishes editorial pieces, among other activities.

Both have a focus on East and Southeast Asian artists, but arent prescriptive about what that entails. I dont think that we are necessarily trying to make any claims about what Asian identity is. Its just a starting point for the artists that are a part of the collective to have the freedom and space to explore their identity, says Miles Ginoza, a DJ, producer, and writer for both collectives. EMs David Zhou, aka Lumi, agrees. We dont wanna hem ourselves into the idea that our cultural identity needs to be constructed within certain boundaries. The chaos is part of who we are.

Chaos certainly characterizes one of EMs standout releases of this year, Redline Legends. A whirlwind tour of East and Southeast Asian club music mutations from funky kota to manyao, Redline Legends is a part of EMs mission to shatter traditional notions of both Asian and experimental music. These are genres that would be frowned upon to be played at some clubs, because these are the sounds of internet cafes and tuk-tuks [rickshaws], says Zhou. Theres such a rich layer of all these burgeoning and bubbling local scenes that sound completely, sonically mad. They sound just as experimental as anything else. From Jiafengs mind-melting combination of nightcore warbling and throat singing on Useless Cuteness to Puppy Ri0ts mishmash of industrial sound design and bouncy vinahouse on RaizeR, Redline Legends is an attempt to reclaim and reimagine what Asian club music can be.

In the United Kingdom, EMs home turf, there is, of course, a rich history of Asian club music of a different kind: the daytimer. Because of the painful history of British colonization and subsequent displacements, the South Asian population in the UK is the countrys largest Asian demographic; the demonym British Asian ordinarily refers to South Asians. In the 80s and 90s, British Asians took local club genres like garage and grime and made them their own; students who werent allowed by their parents to go out to nightclubs would go by bus load to dry daytimer parties that featured bhangra beats and Punjabi garage. These days, UKs Daytimers party collective pays homage to that history, and in November they joined forces with EM to throw a truly Pan-Asian club night. I wanted to show the non-Asian community that maybe they need to critically think about what they know as Asian and realize how wide and vast it is, says Jex Wang, a writer and DJ with EM.

The party was an important learning experience as well. Daytimers is the culmination of two to three decades of evolution, incorporation, and innovation, says Zhou. To see them, how they approach that was super cool to see because, arguably, for us as East and Southeast Asians in the UK, were at a much earlier stage of the evolution cycle in merging club culture and the cultures of our backgrounds. Zhou recalls an anecdote from the party: Dirty K of Chinas Genome 6.66Mbp discussing the influence of Indian classical scales on his work with Daytimers founder Provhat Rahman. Its pretty hard to find Chinese-language material explaining Indian music theory. So for him to come to the UK and have a conversation with someone from that culture in a room together is one of the sickest examples of cross-pollination between different cultures.

With the Omicron variant surging, however, the feasibility of in-person events is once again in flux. Luckily, EM and EDZ are highly familiar with the connective tissue of the internet. Appearing together on talks, radio mixes, and livestreams, EM and EDZ have been in conversation with each other since EMs inception. EMs Elaine Zhao remembers the upsides to the livestream performance era: It was a really cool way to include artists that we couldnt really afford to physically fly over in normal times. Wang echoes Zhaos sentiment: I already spent a lot of time online, but because of the pandemic I spent even more time online, and thats how I connected with a lot of people based out in the U.S.

EDZ in particular is an internet collective through and through. With members in Sydney, Los Angeles, and other cities across the globe, their primary form of collaboration happens over the web. Both Andrew Hong (Andrew3M) and Miles Ginoza (DJ Oyasumi) discovered EDZ through online radio mixes and subsequently became members. Eternal Dragonz has never really had a physical base, says Hong. The internet and its unique flavor of irony tinges everything that they do, from their Instagram posts to the DTLA party they threw earlier this year, lovingly titled (-) [240].4.

I felt like people were taking both raves and identity too seriously, and I didnt want to self-orientalize like, Hey, you should come to this Asian rave, thrown by Asians, says Hong. A lot of us came together through similar experiences of being Asians in the West, experiences with racism or white supremacy and imperialism and all of that stuff. But its not fully just through connecting about oppression. Its also a shared love for club music and similar aesthetics, adds Ginoza.

Their label output reflects those aesthetics, with compilations featuring everything on the experimental side of electronics: deconstructed K-pop remixes, ambient anthems, and straight-up noise. Theyve also released film and game soundtracks, as well as traditional releases, not limiting themselves to any one format. But with the warm response to their Eternal Screw mixtape by ONY, alongside time and financial limitations, theyre moving in a direction that emphasizes the storytelling capacity of mixtapes. With a mix series, you have more time to build and expand, to create a kind of little universe, offers Hong.

Eternal Screw is packed with narrative, a meditation on diasporic nostalgia both real and imagined, cloaked in a fog of reverb. ONY, based in London with Vietnamese heritage, compiled these songs by primarily East Asian producers, in memory of a recent trip to Vietnam, paying homage to Houstons DJ Screw; Houston itself is home to a significant Vietnamese enclave. Its a microcosm of the contradictions and contingencies of the Asian diasporic experience, the feeling of grasping at a home and heritage that shimmers in and out of reach.

Ginoza finds a bit of solace in the expansive potential of thinking in terms of diaspora. Its felt really freeing to find connection in, like, a larger Asian diaspora without necessarily being like, Oh, we are a hundred percent like the same, he says. To that end, EDZ is working on an upcoming podcast series in which artists discuss the mixes theyve made for the collective. Ive always felt like a lot of the mixes that Ive heard on Eternal Dragonz feel really special. Theyre full of different memories or different reference points to Asian identity, Ginoza points out.

So what is this behemoth that we call Asian identity? At times a serviceable shorthand, at others a suffocating signifier, tirelessly discussed by the theoriststhe Rey Chows and Arjun Appaduraisits something that brims with nuance. For their part, EDZ and EM are working it out in their own lane. Zhou closes our interview with a nod to the plethora of other Asian diaspora organizations that work toward similar ends: Chinabot, FunctionLab, The Bitten Peach, Daikon, Yeti Out, among others. Its so important to recognize were just one tiny node in this huge network, he says.

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Tracking the Asian Dance Diaspora With Eastern Margins and Eternal Dragonz - bandcamp.com

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Editors note: This article contains graphic descriptions of police brutality.

Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Comparative American Studies Yveline Alexis has taught at Oberlin since 2013. In 2011, she earned her Ph.D. in History and Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino/a Studies from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst with her dissertation titled Nationalism & the Politics of Historical Memory: Charlemagne Praltes Rebellion against U.S. Occupation of Haiti, 1915-1986. Last month, her book Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Pralte was selected by one of The Times Literary Supplement contributors as their book of the year.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

In the introduction to your book, Haiti Fights Back, you write about the difference between the word nationalist and the Haitian Creole word nasyonalis. Could you explain what that difference is and how an academics understanding of Haiti could be impacted by this culturally nuanced take on national identity?

This is definitely such a key question. I kept using the word nasyonalis just because its been in the lexicon for Creole since the original revolution of 17911803. So I thought we were all on the same page, like nasyonalis means someone who loves their nation and will fight to the death for their nation. One of the series editors was like, You know, given these times, nationalist has a different connotation. And if you think about the Hitler period and its ripple effects and legacy, nationalist can be seen as derogatory. And I was like, Oh crap, I need to make this very clear how Haitians and Black people and people of color utilize the word. So nasyonalis means love of nation willingness to die and sacrifice for your nation. It is citizen kinship, whether its your brother or sister, a willingness to die for them as well.

This is something that must be a very complicated field in and of itself, but how would you describe the Haitian diasporic experience in America?

I think for me, its been positive in the sense that, because I was raised in Brooklyn, New York, the only times I spoke English were in formal institutions like schools, a courthouse, and the mayors cause we were protesting all the time. But we were in this enclave of people who were speaking Patois, predominantly spoken in the English-speaking Caribbean. And Creole, of course; French, of course, which we had to learn. And then at home, there were just so many languages buzzing around. For me it felt like a very safe, supportive community that was watching out for one another.

My own people came during the dictatorship of Haiti, and thinking about the dictatorship even though it ends has ripple effects in terms of the machinery that kept it going. So there would be people who came through my home to get to safety from Haiti to New York, heading to Canada or to France, et cetera. And its an interesting way in which the community whether its my family or the larger Haitian community in Brooklyn protected these people. It was just like, You dont speak to cops; if youre broke, youre never going on welfare because welfare then invites the state into your home. But its a beautiful way in which we move through the world.

Now, one of the things that I would say is shocking to me, I met a number of Haitians or Haitian-Americans from Florida who talked about not being proud of being Haitian until Wyclef Jean and the Fugees came out, and I was like, What? I realized, in hindsight, what was happening was so many of the people who fled in boats, what they call the boat people, were arriving in Miami. That derogatory image of Haitians as all the images that come with someone who flees in a boat thats not well equipped to carry 100, let alone 300 people thats what they were saturated with. So I forgave my Floridian Haitians. And I was like, Oh, if this is on your daily news feed and youre in a school battling the fact that youre Black and battling the fact that you have immigrant parents who do very immigrant things, I understand the context.

You talked about protesting when you were young. What did your activism focus on, and were there certain causes you wanted to draw attention to?

I think for me, immigration is so huge, partly because its something that we all go through. This nation is not ours. Yes, we helped build it. In my mind, Im writing this futuristic novel where we all leave and we ask Native Americans for permission to repopulate the United States. But I was thinking to myself, were all immigrants. I mean, yes, theres linguistic diversity, but whether youre Indian, whether youre Jamaican or Haitian or Cuban, theres something about migrating to a new nation whether involuntarily because of the political and economic conditions, or voluntarily, because you have the opportunity. You go to these elite schools, or you just wanna come and shop, because I know a number of immigrants do that as well. Theres a way in which that unifies us. My activism was always tied to that.

It was the beginning of my march to the city hall [to protest the, what I think was CDC, report about HIV being the fault of Haitians, hemophiliacs, and quote unquote homosexuals] and thinking about Brooklyn Bridge as a site. We were on that Brooklyn Bridge, just marching from Brooklyn to Manhattan to say, Listen, this cant be the representation of Haitians when you know Haiti was involved with the United States from the 1700s. By the time I went to college, there was this incident where this kid who I went to school with in junior high had gotten burnt alive because he was Haitian. And I was just like, What the heck is this? Then when I was in college, we had Abner Louima, who was a Haitian immigrant who spoke Creole and very limited English, and police brutalized him by literally sticking a plunger up his anus. And its like, What the heck?

So theres just this battle fatigue with it. But then also the reality that we cant stop wherever theres injustice, we need to be there trying to flip it. Its not just a Haitian issue, right? This is something that happens across nationalities, and this is how the U.S. treats immigrants of color specifically. So then, when you think about Breonna Taylor or George Floyd, I hate to say, its like the same shit that happens over and over and over. Yall say Black lives whether its immigrant or national citizen doesnt matter. How can we make sure that their lives continuously matter?

There are often trips organized over Winter Term that take students to different places. During your time at Oberlin, has any such trip been planned to Haiti?

I havent had the time to plan one, but I know people have gone to Antigua and I think Barbuda, as well as different parts of Africa including Senegal and Ghana. The thing about this is, I served on a committee where we had to review international trips; all of the trips to Jerusalem and Israel were getting approved and then wed get to a place like Gambia, which is in Africa, and there were faculty and staff asking, Is it safe? And Im like, Hold up. We are sending kids to Israel. Lets just have a dialogue about safety. Whos at war? Luckily, people were able to hear my arguments, but I think there is still a stigma attached to the question of what are safe nations to travel to, which is not something thats specific to Oberlin.

It happened in my undergrad at Cornell University too, where we didnt have a Go to Africa program. I went through the University of Albany. Its something that Im interested in planning. My only thing is if I could be so serious Im so protective of Haiti. I hate when people cant put their cameras down or take pictures of people without consent, particularly kids. Or, you know how our people do, theres a way in which we dress its hot as hell. And so people may have low cut clothing, and people are just randomly taking pictures and posting it on Instagram or whatever. And Im like, did you ask that market womans permission? Did you ask that childs permission to take their picture and then blast it? So Im a little protective. I feel like the right students, if I planned a trip like that, would be able to navigate Haiti the posh Haiti, but also hood Haiti. Cause we would do it all.

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Professor Yveline Alexis on New Book, Activism, and Haitian Diaspora - The Oberlin Review

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Credit: Mstyslav Chernov, CC BY-SA 3.0

From ancient times to the modern day, Greeks of the diaspora those who have left their native land to make a home abroad have enriched the international community.

By Constantine Passaris

Last years bicentennial celebrations of the Greek revolution of 1821 spotlighted the passion of the Greek diaspora for their homeland. The celebrations revealed that the contemporary Greek diaspora has a global presence and an overarching international influence.

The Greek diaspora radiates a geopolitical soft power that serves as a strategic tool for Greeces national causes and foreign policy. In modern times, the members of the Greek diaspora have also been benefactors to their homeland through their philanthropy, crisis relief, business mentorship, entrepreneurial empowerment, and the building of economic bridges with Greece for international trade and economic development.

Greece is a small country, with an inquiring mind, an independent spirit, and a global outreach. Its sparse population of slightly more than 10 million inhabitants is deceiving.

Census reports from around the world estimate that the Greek diaspora, which includes first generation Greek immigrants, and second or third generations of Greek ancestry not born in Greece, exceeds 7 million.

In this regard, Greece stands out among the community of nations in exhibiting a significant population dualism where its total population is partitioned almost equally between those living in the homeland and the Greek diaspora who are dispersed around the world.

The word diaspora has its roots in the ancient Greek language, meaning the scattering of seeds for future growth. Since time immemorial, the Greeks have embraced an adventurous spirit, a peripatetic nature, and a global outreach.

Even in ancient Greece, Homer recorded that the Greeks were known as wanderers and travelers, venturing through foreign seas and lands, motivated by trade, science, intellectual curiosity, poverty, or war, and creating colonies and cities far and wide. As a result, the Greek diaspora has been recorded as one of the oldest and largest in the world.

I believe that Alexander the Great personifies the spirit of the Greek diaspora past and present. In effect, Alexander practiced globalization before the word was invented. The empire he built spanned from Macedonia to Asia and North Africa.

His vision for administering the new lands that he conquered included establishing a Greek community to conduct the affairs of state after he had moved on to new conquests.

Furthermore, he embraced a prototype of a multicultural policy which accepted the cultures and traditions of the conquered peoples and integrated the ruling class of the Greeks in such a way that the host society did not feel victimized.

I always feel a sense of national pride when my friends and colleagues from countries that Alexander conquered such as present-day Iran, India and Egypt speak fondly and with great respect regarding his accomplishments and legacy in their countries.

In this regard, Alexander is not perceived as a malevolent conqueror but as a capable administrator and a cultural benefactor.

The most successful overseas Greek community that was established by Alexander the Great was in Egypt. Ptolemy Soter, a trusted commander of Alexander, ruled Egypt from 305 BC followed by his descendants for more than 300 years until the demise of Queen Cleopatra in 30 BC.

During that time, the city of Alexandria, a Greek polis which was founded by Alexander, became the capital city and a major center of Greek culture, learning, and trade for several centuries.

It was a hub for world trade and the library of Alexandria became a depository for the most valuable original manuscripts and acquired knowledge of those days. Alexandria also emerged as a center of scientific innovation and its iconic lighthouse, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, served as a beacon to the world.

The contemporary Greek Diaspora consists of Greek communities living outside the borders of their Greek homeland. In modern history, the Greek Diaspora has existed in the Balkans, southern Russia, Asia minor, eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, Egypt, and in Corsica.

Since the 20th century, the Greek Diaspora has extended its reach to every corner of the world including the USA, Canada, South America, Germany, and Australia.

In my travels, I have encountered the Greeks of the diaspora across Canada, in the USA, in Australia, and in Europe. At each destination, I witnessed a strong bonding and a fervent passion among them for their homeland.

As a result, I believe that you can take the Greeks out of Greece, but you cannot take Greece out of the Greeks.

Throughout history, Greeks have left an indelible footprint on western civilization and especially in culture, democracy, visual arts, theater, literature, philosophy, politics, architecture, music, mathematics, medicine, science, technology, philanthropy, commerce, cuisine, and sports.

These significant contributions continue to the present day by the noteworthy contributions of contemporary Greeks of the diaspora through their contributions to their adopted countries and humanity at large.

During important milestones in Greek history, the Greek diaspora has extended a helping hand to their homeland. It even played a foundational role in the struggle for Greek Independence in the 19th century.

Through them, Philhellenes around the world were energized to step up and support the ideals of the Greek revolution. During the First and Second World Wars, the diaspora sent young men to fight for their homeland.

More recently the diaspora has assisted with crisis relief, championed national causes, and served as an advocate for Greek foreign policy by energizing political and public opinion in their new homelands.

Greek-Canadians can be found in every province and territory in Canada. However, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver have the largest concentrations of Greek-Canadians.

The 2016 Canadian census recorded that 271,405 Canadians were Greek by ancestry and 62,715 people were born in Greece. A more recent publication, Greeks Around the Globe, records that the Greek-Canadian population totals about 450,000.

The largest Greek immigrant stream to Canada commenced after the Second World War. The first-generation of Greek-Canadians were mostly self-employed in the service sector.

They established restaurants, retail outlets and small businesses. Having instilled the value of education in their children to improve their career opportunities, the second and third generation of Greek-Canadians joined the ranks of white collar professionals such as lawyers, accountants, public servants, academics, scientists, engineers, nurses, and medical practitioners.

A second generational change occurred among the Greek-Canadian diaspora with respect to their political engagement in their new homeland. The first generation of Greek immigrants to Canada were intimately aligned with Greek politics.

In consequence, even in a new country, the Greek diaspora continued to fight party- affiliated political battles of their homeland in their new milieu. This is no longer the case in the 21st century.

The Greeks who were born in the host society and new immigrant arrivals from Greece have exhibited a tendency to embrace Canadian politics and integrate into the political landscape of their host country.

The high numbers of candidates of Greek heritage who are nominated as candidates and elected to public office at the municipal, regional, and federal levels serve as testimony to this reversal of political engagement.

The contemporary passion of the Greek Diaspora for their homeland is reflected in The Hellenic Initiative (THI). THI, a global philanthropic initiative that is replicated in the USA, Canada, and Australia, connects the Greek diaspora and philhellenes with Greece.

More precisely, it serves as a catalyst for global fundraising, providing direct economic, social, and environmental crisis relief as well as opening doors for entrepreneurial initiatives, promoting job creation and economic development in Greece and raising global awareness about key issues of importance to Greece.

Dr. Constantine Passaris is a Professor of Economics at the University of New Brunswick, Canada and an Onassis Foundation Fellow (Greece). He was recently included in the inaugural edition of Whos Who in Greece 2020 and is the first Greek-Canadian to be appointed to the Order of New Brunswick.

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The Passion of the Greek Diaspora for Greece - Greek Reporter

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Members of the global Indian diaspora and citizens in many countries have voiced concern over alleged inflammatory and provocative speeches against Muslims at an event in Haridwar and demanded immediate arrest of those responsible for what they called genocidal hate speech at the conclave.

"Diaspora groups across South Africa, Australia, USA, UK, Netherlands, Germany, Scotland, Finland and New Zealand, representing Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian communities expressed their rage on Twitter" over the provocative speeches at the Haridwar Dharam Sansad held last month, said a joint statement issued by a group of 28 organisations.

The statement also criticised the government over its failure to arrest those responsible for genocidal hate speech at the Haridwar Dharam Sansad.

"The common call of the global Indian diaspora who initiated the global action was for the immediate arrest of Yati Narsinghanand and the Dharma Sansad speakers, it added.

The organisations which signed the statement included Hindus for Human Rights, Worldwide; International Council of Indian Muslims, Worldwide; India Alliance, Europe; Stichting London Story, Europe; Dalit Solidarity Forum, USA; Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations, USA; Indian American Muslim Council, USA; India Solidarity Germany, Germany; The Humanism Project, Australia; Poetic Justice Foundation, Canada and South Asia Solidarity Group, UK among others.

Held in Haridwar from December 17-20, the Dharam Sansad was organised by Yati Narsinghanand Giri of the Juna Akhada, who is already under police scanner for making hate speeches and inciting violence against Muslims.

At the event, several speakers allegedly made inflammatory and provocative speeches, calling for the killing of people from the minority community.

Two FIRs have been lodged against 15 people in the case, including Waseem Rizvi who changed his name to Jitendra Narayan Tyagi after converting to Hinduism recently and organiser of the Sansad Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of Dasna temple in Ghaziabad.

A five-member Special Investigation Team has been constituted to look into the matter. "We have constituted an SIT. It will carry out a probe. If solid evidence against those involved is found appropriate action will be taken," Garhwal DIG KS Nagnyal had said.

Several Opposition leaders, including those from the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, have condemned what they said was a "hate speech conclave" and called for strict action against those involved.

Also, retired police officers, including former DGPs of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, have written to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami describing the Sansad as a blot on Uttarakhand's long tradition of peaceful coexistence of different religions.

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Members of global Indian diaspora demand arrest of those responsible for genocidal hate speech at Haridwar conclave - The Hindu

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Zoom webinar registration: https://bit.ly/3sjURYz Co-sponsored by Yales Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies A presentation of survivors semiotics with acclaimed artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, founder of the Nkyinkyim Museum in Nuhalenya Ada, Ghana (https://ancestorprojectgh.com). He notes, The word Nkyinkyim is both an adinkra symbol and a proverb. It directly relates to the travels made by our ancestors and also their journeys from where they migrated from. It also refers to the physical shape of the art installation which is going to be in twists and turns.Akoto-Bamfos Nkyinkyim Installation stands at the entrance of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice (https://nyti.ms/2xHxn51) in Montgomery, Alabama, opened in 2018 by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), the first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence. In 2021, Akoto-Bamfos Blank Slate Monument (https://blankslatemonument.com) toured throughout the U.S., from Louisville, to the King Center in Atlanta, among other stops.Akoto-Bamfo won the 2015 Kuenyehia Art Prize, Ghanas top prize for contemporary art. He is a graduate of KNUST in Kumasi, Ghana. He last visited and spoke at Beinecke Library on Martin Luther King Day 2020, one of our last major on-site events before the pandemic. We are honored by his return, virtually, to join us in 2022 from Ghana and delighted to be able to reach an even larger audience online this year. More on Akoto-Bamfo and his work:*Monument Lab, 2021: Building Restorative Justice Across the African Diaspora https://bit.ly/3yI1hlf *EJI, 2019: Nkyinkyim Sculpture at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice https://bit.ly/3GWIsxH*BBC, 2019: You See the Face of Our Ancestors https://bbc.in/3yGrW1O*The Root, 2018: Lynching Memorial: Ghanaian Artist Hopes Sculpture Captures Shared Pain Between African Americans and the Motherland https://bit.ly/3p8N9OH

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Mondays at Beinecke: Building Restorative Justice Across the African Diaspora with Kwame Akoto-Bamfo - Yale News

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

The storied rise and fall of Jean-Michel Basquiat is headed for a new rendering on the silver screen, according to Variety. Under the title Samo Lives (citing the mantle that Basquiat used as a mysterious graffiti tag on the streets of New York), the biopic is being developed and financed by Endeavor Content and director Julius Onah, whose credits include 2015s The Girl Is in Trouble (a name-making debut produced by Spike Lee), 2018s The Cloverfield Paradox (produced by J. J. Abrams), and 2019s Luce.

That most recent film starred Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, and Tim Rothas well as Kelvin Harrison Jr., who has signed on to rejoin Onah and play the role of one of the most romanticized and revered contemporary artists in America or anywhere else.

In an extensive Directors Statement on a website for Samo Lives, Onah writes, Simply put, Jean-Michel Basquiats work and life has been an absolute inspiration. When I began to learn about him at the age of 14 it was incredible to discover someone who boldly forged his own path into a world where most who didnt fit the expected profile of a fine artist had been unable to (i.e. white and male). Though I could not yet fully appreciate the enormity of what Jean-Michels achievements meant, I could certainly feel there was something so groundbreaking and unique about them.

He goes on to attribute part of his learning about the artist to the 1996 biographical film Basquiat, directed by painter Julian Schnabel. But the older I got and the more I learned about Jean-Michel, Onah writes, the more I began to feel his story hadnt fully been told in cinema. Never have we seen the full spectrum of Basquiats incredible life as a Black artist and a child of the immigrant African diaspora.

Filming is expected to being in the fall. The movie will also feature a soundtrack by Portisheads Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury, who together composed notable scores for Annihilation, Ex Machina, and Free Fire.

When it first flickers on a screen, Samo Lives will join other cinematic treatments of the art stars life including Schnabels Basquiat (which featured Jeffrey Wright as the artist and David Bowie as his latter-day collaborator Andy Warhol) and Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a documentary by his friend Tamra Davis from 2010. Fans of Basquiat are also required to watch Downtown 81, a simultaneously awful and awe-inspiring movie that stars Basquiat himself as an artist making his way around the fertile interdisciplinary art/music/etc. scene of the East Village in its heyday.

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Forthcoming Basquiat Movie Aims to Tell Story of His Incredible Life As a Black Artist and Child of the Immigrant African Diaspora - ARTnews

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

HeadlinerEdiths

Elyssa Heller, a Chicago native who settled in New York 10 years ago, has been building a career in food. She worked in marketing and operations for several companies, and then, without quitting her day job, started Ediths, as a pop-up at Paulie Gees Slice Shop in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, in 2020 selling items like handmade bagels. Christina Jackson, formerly of Tetsu, and Benjamin Leung, formerly of Manhatta, prepared the food. Last summer, Ms. Heller, 32, opened a sandwich counter in Williamsburg, also named for her great-aunt. She has now added this nearby market and 25-seat cafe, decorated with Moroccan tiles, where her goal is to showcase the food of the Jewish diaspora, as she put it, a mix of Eastern European, North African and Middle Eastern, as well as Zabars style of Jewish American fare. The daily cafe menu might feature kasha porridge, Russian-style syrniki pancakes, labneh parfait with chickpea granola, and malawach, Jewish pancakes from Yemen. There will be smoked fish and meats, prepared in-house, and many ingredients used in the cooking will also be sold. Ediths will have a full liquor license, and Ms. Heller said she planned to pour wines from North Africa, Eastern Europe and Israel.

312 Leonard Street (Conselyea Street), edithsbk.com.

Chikara Sono, the chef of BBF, has added an eight-seat counter, Kappo Sono, at the rear of that restaurant, which opened last summer. On Sundays and Mondays, it will offer two seatings, at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. (Mr. Sono will accept no more than 16 reservations total for the week.) A $222 kaiseki menu, nine courses, will include seasonal items like hairy crab with sliced ginger, and monkfish and monkfish liver with yuzu.

177 Ludlow Street (East Houston Street), 646-476-5088, bbfkapposono.com.

The restaurateur Djamel Omari and his business partner, Allan Chan, have opened this trattoria-style spot notable for its red doors and a flower-bedecked Vespa parked out front. The menu, overseen by Mr. Omari, is devoted to typical fare: bruschetta, arancini, fritto misto, polpette, pollo Milanese, Caesar salad and pasta Bolognese, alla vongole and carbonara. Its an airy room with exposed brick and wood ceilings. It opened on a preliminary basis in December and now has a liquor license.

117 Perry Street (Greenwich Street), 315-257-5473, cantonyc.com.

During the pandemic, Gaurav Anand limited Awadh, his Upper West Side Indian restaurant, to takeout and delivery, and he continues to do so. But for on-premises dining, indoors and out, he has renamed the space Baazi and turned it into a different restaurant. (The move was delayed from last year until now, as shipments of tableware and equipment were stuck in transit.) The restaurant, over two floors, has been brightened, with a more Mediterranean palette. And Mr. Anand is collaborating with Aarthi Sampath, a chef who had been at Junoon. The food veers toward Southern India, with dishes like urad bean and lentil dumplings, lamb ribs glazed with tamarind sauce and dusted with a cumin-coriander blend, roast trout with spicy red masala paste, and Goan Cornish hen flambed in Indian rum. (Opens Monday)

2588 Broadway (97th Street), 646-861-3859, baazi.us.

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Edith's in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and More New York Restaurant Openings - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are key to the growth of African economies, but they are often plagued by challenges among them lack of adequate funding to startup or grow their businesses.

Though governments like Rwandas are doing a lot to create a supportive and enabling environment, capital challenges still linger, especially for the micro SMEs operating in the informal sector, which find it hard to obtain loans from banks due to failure to meet the necessary requirements, for example collateral.

Marlon Weir, a Jamaican-American diaspora who has relocated to Rwanda is developing a 1st of its kind, unique IT solution which he reckons can be a platform for local SMEs to qualify and host micro-investment opportunities, which will aid them in accessing funding from their counterparts in outside countries (the rest of Africa and the global African diaspora).

Dubbed AFRIKANEKT.com, the application aims to be an all-in-one digital solution that provides multiple functions including global encrypted messaging, tourism, trading, Fintech, agriculture, social networking and entertainment, amongst others.

In an interview with Doing Business, Weir explained that by using technology, Africans on the continent can start to access person-to-person or crowd funding from their diaspora-based counterparts, and this can be of benefit to those that face difficulty in accessing funds from financial institutions in facilitating the growth of their operations.

We feel that the best way nowadays is person to person. For instance, if someone based in the diaspora, say in the USA has $500 USD, it doesnt go very far there. However, for someone in a rural area in Rwanda, that $500 USD can really assist a lot with certain projects, for example in agriculture, he said.

Through a platform like AFRIKANEKT, Africans can submit their projects, explain the returns expected, and how much funding they need. The platform will do their due diligence on the project and expose it to diaspora-based counterparts who can provide the funding. We, as the managers of the platform will act as the (trusted) guarantors in this case. The micro-investor will pass the money through us, and we will take the necessary steps to ensure that the project is managed and executed correctly while guaranteeing a certain level of ROI (return on investment) for the investor, he added.

Weir believes that equitable partnerships between Africans on the continent and those in the diaspora can be harnessed to achieve a lot as far as improving livelihoods and enhancing the economies is concerned.

We have 1.3 billion people on the continent, but further to that, there is the diaspora. We have about 300 million people of African descent living outside of Africa. Considering things like spending power, education levels, global experience, etc - we can surely add something to each other. The future is African and going forward, our unity is going to be our strength, but to make that realized, we really need to leverage technology to facilitate it and make it happen faster, he noted.

Furthermore, Weir says that with the actualisation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), there are opportunities for the free movement of goods and people across the continent, and there should be technological mechanisms that aid the ordinary people to understand and benefit from this.

We dont necessarily see a user friendly mechanism that helps the layperson to be able to be informed and trade via the AfCFTA, and we feel very strongly that a technology like AFRIKANEKT can fill that void, he noted, explaining that people can use such an online platform to sell their goods, ranging from electronic devices like mobile phones to agricultural commodities, across the continent and globally.

Stressing that tourism is a huge driver for cooperation, peace, tolerance and economic growth, Weir states that creating an African crafted, up-to-date narrative of what our African countries have to offer today will be a game-changer going forward.

He gave the example of The Year of Return in Ghana in 2019, which attracted millions of tourists from the diaspora and over $1 billion to the Ghanaian economy. Such bold and necessary promotional campaigns have to be enacted across the continent and on a regular basis. Awareness of these campaigns and opportunities on offer can be facilitated through AFRIKANEKT and strategic partnerships with the tourism, cultural and economic bodies on the continent.

hkuteesa@newtimesrwanda.com

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How tech start-up is attempting to improve small businesses funding - The New Times

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Bennett: Economy will stay open as much as possible in Omicron wave

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett says that despite skyrocketing COVID cases in the country, he is working to ensure the economy stays open.

Omicron is a variant that infects more than all the other variants put together, says Bennett in a live press conference ahead of a scheduled meeting of the COVID cabinet this evening.

But Bennett vows that his goal is that the market will stay open as much as possible and the economy will still be working.

I dont want to see people losing their jobs, closing their businesses, he says. He calls on people to work from home as much as possible, and also notes that the state will fund quarantine days, including for the self-employed, as part of a new initiative agreed to by the Finance Ministry.

Lockdowns dont work, he says, pointing to other countries with lockdowns that also have skyrocketing cases.

Alongside that goal, the prime minister says, are the goals of protecting the elderly and most at-risk populations as well as children. Bennett says the rules for schools will be the same as for adults, and therefore many children will enter quarantine because many are not vaccinated.

Israel is providing the best protection in the world for those who are vulnerable, he says including with booster vaccines and pills.

He says he instructed hospital chiefs to prepare for up to 4,000 serious cases at the height of the Omicron wave, even though the experts predict 1,500-2,500.

He also addresses the hours-long lines at testing stations around the country. The lines are long, I understand, I hate standing in line myself, I know how frustrating it is, says Bennett, calling on people not to do PCR tests if they are not over 60.

He insists the government is providing an answer for those businesses affected, but says these are specific businesses, not all. Unlike the last government, he says, hes not going to mortgage our childrens future by giving out money indiscriminately.

Bennett accuses former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu of acting unpatriotically in his criticisms of the government, referencing a recent video of the opposition leader mocking the reliability of antigen tests.

Its going to be unpleasant here [in the next few weeks], Bennett says. Were in a situation that happens once in an era the opposition is trying to create chaos and hysteria. Its unjustified. Were managing this better than almost anywhere in the world.

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Nationalist tree planting in the south sparks coalition infighting, violent protests - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Millions of Israelis are defined as others by religious law. Israels statistics bureau is now set to define them as extended Jewish.

In Israel, nearly half a million citizens are defined as others a category for those who are neither Jew nor Arab. But the countrys Central Bureau of Statistics is getting ready to expand the definition of Jewish, in a move that would lead to wider recognition of 4.6 percent of the Israeli population in official publications on demographics.

The proposal to scrap the others category was tabled two weeks ago, and the members of the committee that proposed the idea predict that the suggested changes will be adopted, according to a report by Haaretz.

A problematic category

Under Israels Law of Return, all non-Israeli Jews, including converts to Judaism are entitled to settle in Israel and receive full Israeli citizenship under the auspices of recognised Jewish communities. According to official Israeli data, there were more than 3,340,000 immigrants who have made Aliyah (immigration) to Israel since the states establishment as of October 2021.

Despite being recognised by the law of return, however, the others are not falling under the category of Jewish by halakha, Jewish religious law. While descent by matriline, being born to a Jewish mother is what makes a person Jewish by the law, having at least one Jewish grandparent grants the right to immigrate.

Data show that Aliyah has been increasing in recent years from various countries including the United States. But the Russian-speaking immigrants, who first immigrated in the 90s still make up the majority of others. At the end of 2020, 415,147 Israelis were listed as other.

Eliahu Ben Moshe, a demographer and statistician from the Hebrew University told Haaretz that the definition was demeaning and problematic, and even the top decision makers were aware of the problem.

Even though Minister of Intelligence Elazar Stern first brought up the initiative, Moshe says the conclusion was already there, and Stern just happened to be the first person who proposed it.

Moshes committee recently suggested that the scrapped category should be replaced with enlarged or extended Jewish population. The proposed category for the Statistics Bureau would include all Jews under Law of Return, even though theyre not necessarily halachically Jewish.

In the United States, it is accepted that children of mixed marriages get included in the tally of the Jewish population, Moshe said, adding that the committee was more or less using that as their model.

Another argument of the proposal was that the categorisation would put off those who fall under the category a result that goes against Israels desire to convert non-Jews who immigrate to Israel.

If approved, the non-Arab Circassian Muslims also would be defined as extended Jewish, as well as members of other religious groups who are married to an Israeli.

A stumbling block

The categorisation causes some hurdles too.

The citizens who are not halachically Jewish are not allowed to get married in Israel through the rabbinate, often trying to find alternative ways such as marrying abroad or in unrecognised ceremonies.The others are also not allowed to be buried in Jewish cemeteries.

In some cases, DNA tests became a solution to prove Jewishness for those challenged by the religious bureaucracy. After half a dozen complaints, it was revealed that Israeli rabbinical courts were increasingly relying on such genetic tests, and in some cases, even requesting them, a 2019 report said.

Even the Statistics Bureaus change of categorisation is approved, however, some argue that it will not cause any practical change. The Interior Ministry would still keep the religious classification as it is and anyone who is not halachically Jewish still would be listed as not classified by religion.

Israels Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana previously argued that Israel should adapt to a more welcoming approach which isn't based on being halachically Jewish but rather being Jewish enough to live here under the terms of the Law of Return.

The minister is now getting ready to propose a legislation that would make Orthodox conversions easier for those who are not halachically Jewish.

Source: Reuters

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Israel to expand the definition of Jewishness. What does that mean? - TRT World

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