The Arab Street in Santa Monica: Sat, Sept 23, 2006

Featuring the Philistines, the Nomads, Excentrik, New West, and Legitimates! If you are in Southern California, check them out. I have Free the P and it's excellent hip-hop and spoken word poetry. Free the P is a CD whose profits go to Jackie Salloum's Slingshot Hip Hop -- a film about Palestinian hip hop artists.

are we all Palestinians?

I don't think so. Carlos Latuff, cartoonist from Brazil, has created quite a stir w/ his cartoons that depict different oppressed people who say "I am Palestinian" from a Vietnamese to a Native American to an African American. First of all, the images are crude and reductive; they only present people of color as victims; they are in a moment in history as though that representation, "post civil war" for example, is the quintessential text of oppression. It erases the nuances and it also conflates Palestinians' particular experiences under Israel with all other people's experiences under repressive governments.

I was at an anti-war demonstration in ann arbor and a skinny white guy was wearing a shirt that said "we are all Palestinians," and I really wanted to knock him on his head. Arrogance, presumption. I am Iraqi-American and I would not wear that shirt. I do not deserve to wear that shirt with all of my American privileges. I cannot articulate how wrong and how smug it is. so this latuff, I won't say I want to smack him because I, maybe unfairly, did not have the same hostile response.

Latuff's blog is engaging but I am leery of his politics. anyone else have an opinion on his work or these cartoons? please share.

9/13/06 addendum to this post:
see controversy over Gwyneth Paltrow's I am African Aids campaign & comments posted by nubian on blac(k)ademic blog. This is beyond comment for me & this exemplifies what I am talking about. very, very lost liberal.

No Hussein link to Al Queda? Really?

I have some very shocking news. Today's NYTimes reports, five years after 2001, 11 Sept, that The CIA disputed the 'prewar ties between Saddam Hussein's government' and Al Qaeda & Abu Musab al-Zarqawa LAST FALL.

How many more times is this information going to be reported before the general public gets it?

again, why did we go to war with Iraq? Was it because of terrorism you think? Because Saddam Hussein was such a tyrannt and GB an American hero, he was having a rescue fantasy?

as you can see, I am having some anger issues.

Denial is everywhere --even in the Iraqi communities of Michigan where many, many folks voted for George W. Bush. Ask some of my cousins. "Iraq did have WMD; they were destroyed before the Americans got to Iraq. " Uh-huh.
"GB is a good Christian and would not intentionally harm anyone." Okay, gulbee, gullibles.

Here we get to the central issue of this war: Religion. This war, despite the denials, is about the alleged legitimacy and superiority of one religion(Christianity) and the campaign to delegitimize another religion: Islam.

guest post at This is not my Country

Mayor's Arts Awards

Congratulations to Other artist & blogger Mohamad Bazzi & to the museum!

aesthetics and radical politics

CALL FOR PAPERS, COLLABORATIONS AND INTERVENTIONS:
AESTHETICS AND RADICAL POLITICS
Fri 2nd Feb 2007, University of Manchester
***DEADLINE: December 15th 2006***
Sponsored by the SGSA
see site for full details

we encourage presentations and discussions that address
issues from other radical critical positions -
whether they be anarchist, autonomist,ecological or otherwise.

We imagine papers, discussions & workshops about things like:

• Carnivalesque protest and theatrical interventions

• Affect and political action

• Art-activism

• Anarchist literary criticism

• Situationism and its reception by contemporary activists

• 'Second wave' anarchism and culture - John Moore, Hakim Bey etc.

• Anarchism and Modernism

• Cultural production and immaterial labour

• Anarchism and poststructuralism

• The politics of the avant-garde

• Anarchist fiction, biographies and autobiographies

ARTENEWS

New issue has poetry by Lamya El-Chidaic, Lisa Majaj on the poetry of Mohja Kahf,
A review of Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and a tribute to Naguib Mahfouz by painter Athir Shayota.
Check it out!!

Dearborn Benefit

FUNDRAISER AT CRAVE IN DEARBORN (excuse and ignore the seduction music)
we'll have to ask Owner Khalil Ramadan if the music was his idea. my friend Dahlia is one of the organizers and says that money will go to warchild.org for children in Lebanon and Iraq: Friday, Sept 8, 2006, 10 p.m.

Dally in the Alley: 29th year

Saturday, September 9th, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

DETROIT+ DETROIT +DETROIT
MUSIC SCHEDULE

layabouts at 9:30 p.m.
Forest Stage
***
Women in Black-Detroit demonstration
silent protest against wars in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan
12noon, Cultural Center, Putnam and Woodward in front of Public Library

Black Weblogawards

BEST TOPICAL BLOG

This category is for blogs of topics which are not included in the present Black Weblog Awards categories (e.g, hip-hop, humor, LGBT, personal, photo, political/news, pop culture, or technology).

FINALISTS
Blac(k)ademic
Rattler Nation
The Pontifications of Maurice Broaddus

WINNER

Blac(k)ademic

25-year-old doctoral student, womanist, filmmaker and activist Kortney Ryan Zeigler (Nubian) dissects the notions of race, feminism, academia and artistic expression with a surgeon’s precision.

Comments section on blogs: what do you think?

Why do people get so indignant, petty, snarky, snobby when they decide to comment on a blog? On Angry Arab blog, so many crazy people, some of the same people just embarrass themselves wtih pointless vomit.

see under his
List of collective massacres perpetrated by Israeli Army
The chart is devastating. Silence, disbelief, grief, rage, sympathy would be how I think folks would respond.

There are 400 comments and 70% are poinless.

The usual suspects consist of Christian Sunni who posts 40% of the comments; Happy Arab, Alan, Zionist, Controlled by Hatred, Anonymouse, and Virgil Johnson are among the other players. I got zapped by Controlled by Hatred because I told him he was anti-semitic--go to his crazzy site and you will see. Virgil had to tell me to go away and then later came to my blog to apologize. all insanity, all useless verbiage in my opinion. We should be 'doing something' about what is happening, no? I am really disheartened by all of this.

btw, Yes, I know the charge of anti-Semitism is rampant and overblown, but that does not erase the existence of anti-jewish sentiment just like there is a ton of anti-arab, anti-black, anti-everyone rhetoric flying around these days. Why even answer these people? I have not gotten enough folks to make comments to decide what I WILL DO. I know many other bloggers say they will delete or not post racist comments. Depends, but I am not going to censure someone. Let them make fools of themselves!

Brownfemipower blogger celebrates one year

Congratulations & shout out:

Posted by brownfemipower on 04 Sep 2006 at 01:19 am | Tagged as: random chit chat

well, this blog is almost a year old!!!! since i exploded my first starter blog, i’m not sure of the *exact* date that I started, but it was some time in September (i think i started earlier than that, but i didn’t really start taking it seriously until in September some time). i decided that september 16th will be this blog's birthday from now on.

so i’m looking for things to do to celebrate!!!! let’s have us a big party of some kind!! what should we do???

VISIT DISSENTERS' PARK

NOW we are talking ARTFUL DISSENT in DEARBORN,
the other D.

an incredible turnout at the Lebanese Heritage Center in Dearborn Michigan. Rawi president & Libyan poet Khaled Mattawa from UM, and amazing hip-hop activist poetry by Invincible(Ilana Weaver) w. Lebanese Big A & IRON SHEIK! beautiful oud playing by Omar Zayr owner of Cafe Oz. YOU MISSED a wonderful evening. Organized by many folks but wanted to shout out to one especially: Noura Erakat, DC RAWI member. SO nice to meet her in person! Organizers' conference was well attended and fruitful; unfortunately, I could only attend the Sat night event.