Kim Pearson Drops a Bomb: Journalists' Rights

Our good friend and comrade Professor Kim (Kim Pearson) has joined the fray on Journalists' Rights via the Online Journalism Review (USC's Annenberg Center for Communication).

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Josh Wolf: video blogger at the center of controversy over journalists' rights

For refusing to hand over unaired video of a G8 Summit protest, Wolf has been imprisoned for contempt; members of the media have rallied to his aid.
By Kim Pearson

In some ways, Joshua Wolf cuts an unlikely figure as a crusader for the rights of journalists. The 24-year-old California videoblogger’s journalistic portfolio is "thin,", according to Anthony Lappe, executive editor of Guerilla News Network. Some traditional journalists are discomfited by the Wolf’s sympathy for the anarchists whose activities he often covers.

But Wolf’s willingness to go to prison rather than turn over unpublished video of a July, 2005 anti-globalization protest in San Francisco to a federal grand jury has earned him the support of journalists and civil liberties advocates across the United States. Prosecutors say they need the video outtakes to help them determine how a police officer was injured and a police car was damaged. Wolf and his lawyers say the video contains no information about the alleged crimes, and that as a journalist, he should not be compelled to turn them over. Further, they charge, the prosecutors' actions in this case endanger not only the First Amendment rights of journalists, but the civil liberties of ordinary citizens with dissident political views.

After a six-month court battle that has gone as for as the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Wolf was imprisoned on charges of civil contempt on September 22, 2006 at the Federal Correctional facility in Dublin, California.

"As unconventional and non-traditional as [Josh Wolf's] work in journalism may be in many respects, he is contesting an age-old argument... and that's that journalists never should be arms of law enforcement," says Christine Tatum, president of the Society of Professional Journalists. "Josh has, at great personal cost, taken quite a stand – an admirable stand, and he has said..., 'I am not divulging unpublished, unedited, unaired material...for a grand jury's review. And we stand wholeheartedly behind him."

Read More...

Congrats to Byron Hurt

There have been many reasons to congratulate film-maker Byron Hurt, most notably for his ground-breaking film Beyond Beats and Rhymes. Byron is also on a list of prominent pro-feminist black men of the hip-hop generation. Now we can congratulate Byron for embracing matrimony.

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From the New York Times

Kenya Crumel and Byron Hurt
October 1, 2006

Kenya Felice Crumel and Byron Patrick Hurt were married last evening at their home in Plainfield, N.J. The ceremony was performed by Michael Dyson, a Baptist minister.

Ms. Crumel, 35, is keeping her name. She is the director of organizational development at BCT Partners, management, technology and policy consultants in Newark. She graduated from Brown and received a master’s degree in public administration from New York University.

Mr. Hurt, 36, is a documentary filmmaker. He wrote, directed and produced “Beyond Beats and Rhymes: A Hip-Hop Head Weighs In on Manhood in Hip-Hop Culture,” which explores sexism, violence and homophobia in hip-hop and rap music. The film, screened at the Sundance Film Festival this year, is to be broadcast on PBS early next year. The bridegroom graduated from Northeastern University.

Read More...

When Rape Isn’t in Black and White

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When Rape Isn’t in Black and White
By Mark Anthony Neal

As the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case unfolded in the spring of this year, it became a national obsession. Part of our fascination with the case was that it played to racial scripts that we have become all too complicit in maintaining—there remains no better drama in American life, than sex and violence across the color line. But once we step back across that color line and back to the comforts of our own segregated communities and institutions, we are suddenly met with silence and denial when confronted with the issue of sexual violence against black women and girls, particularly when its at the hands of black men and boys. Recent allegations of rape against students at Morehouse College, the historically black male college in Atlanta, by members of its sister school, Spelman College and the response by some “Morehouse Men” to those allegations, speaks volumes about just how far black communities need to go to take serious the threat that sexual violence poses to our communities.

That a rape might have occurred on the Morehouse or Spelman campuses is disturbing, but not unusual. As is the case at many other colleges and universities across the country, sexual assault can occur “early and often” during the new school year, as women students acclimate themselves to the physical landscape of their campuses and negotiate social scenes often predicated on alcohol consumption and the prevalence of a “hook-up” culture. Many of the Women’s Centers and the like on campuses are well aware of these trends—including the number of unreported date rapes that occur in this context—so it was perfectly normal that Spelman’s chapter of the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) chose to speak out forcefully about the alleged rapes that occurred this month and the issues of sexual assault and violence in general.

In a statement Spelman College’s FMLA asserted that “Within the past two weeks two Spelman students have reported incidents of rape allegedly involving Morehouse students. As Spelman students we were outraged by this news and deeply saddened by the complacency surrounding the issue within the Atlanta University Center (AUC). We hear about such incidents several times a semester, through word of mouth and rumor. The facts are often misconstrued.”. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on Wednesday September 20, 2006, that over 150 women participated in a march from Spelman’s campus to Morehouse, where they held a speak-out. The FMLA reports that the open forum contained “passionate and explosive opinions” on both sides.

Both sides? Well of course there were not any folks advocating for rape, but within black institutions that still value patriarchy and the “stability” it supposedly engenders , black women (and a few men) are often admonished for publicly criticizing and holding black men accountable for behavior that is clearly detrimental to our communities and our shared humanities. Members of the Morehouse College student senate, for example, introduced a bill condemning the Spelman College protest, arguing that said protest “created a hostile environment” and “encouraged bad press and character defamation to Morehouse College and its student body.” The senate also castigated the FMLA for apparently not asking their permission (“Morehouse College Student Government Association was not invited to assist in the planning of the protest”). In the final section of the bill, the Morehouse College student senate requested “a public apology from the Advisor(s) to FMLA (Feminist Majority Leaders Alliance), and student leadership of FMLA and all other organizers of the demonstration for its unruly nature”. The language of the bill was clear, the sanctity of the “body” of Morehouse College was more important than the bodies of black women—their sisters, friends, lovers, etc.—who are defiled in acts of rape and other forms of sexual violence.

To their credit, the Morehouse Men were savvy enough to issue a joint statement stating that they “stand firm against any act of sex that is not consensual—violent or nonviolent—that is forced upon any individual” and “stand firm behind victims--vocal or quiet--of this heinous transgression.” But such statements carry no weight if young men are unwilling to let women—the most likely victims of rape—the ability to express their own rage and concern on their own terms. As Spelman Professor William Jelani Cobb reports, the protesters were “taunted and jeered and only a handful of men were brave enough to join the protest”. Cobb adds, “Morehouse needs to respond to the intolerant reaction a number of their students had regarding the protest. That kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable.”

Black men often think that they lack privilege, but that is in relation to the relative privilege of their white male peers. Their privilege, in relationship to black women is real and it is often the basis, particularly within elite black institutions, that black women are expected to serve the needs—politically, socially, emotionally and sexually—of black men. In many ways the reaction of some Morehouse men, to the Spelman FMLA protest, has to do with the willingness of those women to challenge the social contract between them. Until black men are willing to break ranks with their masculine privilege, any claims of support—heartfelt or not—will ring hollow.

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Mark Anthony Neal is Associate Professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University where he also serves as the Director of the Institute for Critical U.S. Studies.

Bless Them Spelman Women

Students protest Spelman's silence on rumors of rape
School to launch 'presidential initiative', won't confirm reports

By JEFFRY SCOTT
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 09/21/06

About 150 women gathered Wednesday at Spelman College to protest alleged reports of the rape of two students.

Spelman officials declined to confirm a widespread rumor that two Spelman students were raped by Morehouse college students but issued a statement announcing the launch of an initiative to raise awareness of sexual violence.

Both schools are part of the Atlanta University Center on the west side of downtown Atlanta.

The schools are considered sister and brother colleges. Spelman is all-female; Morehouse is all-male.

In response to a rally and march staged Wednesday morning by the Spelman student organization Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, Spelman college president Beverly Daniel Tatum issued a four-paragraph statement Wednesday afternoon.

The statement didn't address the rumor specifically.

"As you may know, there is widespread concern on the Spelman campus about sexual violence in the Atlanta University community," the statement read.

"This concern is appropriate because according to the Bureau of Justice crime statistics, every two and a half minutes, someone is sexually assaulted in the U.S. and one in six American women has been the victim of sexual assault."

The statement said the school is launching a "presidential initiative" to examine the problem of sexual violence and exploitation and raise awareness of the problem. Spelman spokeswoman Renita Mathis declined to comment beyond the statement; the school police department referred reporters to the public relations office.

A representative for Morehouse could not be reached for comment.

Around campus a few women were wearing white T-shirts bearing in big bold letters the words "Your Sister Was Raped" and "Did I Deserve Rape?"

Tonia Washington, a 20-year-old junior, said she went to an FMLA meeting Tuesday night to plan the Wednesday march.

Students gathered at the Spelman conference center, then marched to Morehouse to protest what they said was a lack of response by school officials to the alleged rapes.

"The school has not kept us informed," said Washington. "These rapes have happened, and they [Morehouse] are our brothers, our brother school, and we are their sisters. It's outrageous."

Spelman officials declined to give any details of the alleged rapes and whether an investigation is underway.

Jason Robinson, 19, a Morehouse student who also takes classes at Spelman, said school officials have behaved responsibly: "There isn't any accuracy in what's being said," he said.

"We don't know the details. But I do know that rape is not tolerated at Morehouse College."

"Portraying a Social Disaster: How the Media Makes Sense out of Chaos"

Wednesdays at the Center

Wednesday, September 27, 2006 at 12:00 noon

The John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies

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At noon on Wednesday, September 27, the Institute for Critical US Studies (ICUSS) at Duke University will present "Portraying a Social Disaster: How the Media Makes Sense out of Chaos". This panel will critically examine the media's scripting of our community's recent Social Disaster, and the specific ways in which nuance and complexity are sacrificed in the name of expediency and intelligibility. As we must ask about the Social Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, how do we negotiate the damage that is done, not just by the "incident" itself, but by its representations?

The panel will feature Grant Farred (Assoc. Professor of Literature, Duke);

Jon Pessah, (Deputy Editor, ESPN The Magazine); and

Angela Jarman (BA Women's Studies, 2006, Duke).

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ABOUT WEDNESDAYS AT THE CENTER

All Wednesdays at the Center programs take place on Wednesdays at noon, in room 240 at the John Hope Franklin Center for Interdisciplinary and International Studies. The John Hope Franklin Center is located on Duke's West Campus at the northwest corner of Trent Drive and Erwin Road. A buffet lunch is provided at no charge. No tickets or reservations are required, and seating is limited. Parking is available at the nearby Duke Medical Center parking deck, and free parking vouchers are provided at the end each program.

Black Performance Studies: A Symposium at Northwestern University

8:30 am Continental breakfast

9:00-9:30 Intro: E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University
Welcome: Barbara O’Keefe, Dean, School of Communication,
Northwestern University
Opening Remarks: Harry Elam, Stanford University
Dwight McBride, Northwestern University

9:30-11:00 Panel 1
Moderator: Margaret Thompson Drewal, Northwestern University
Keynote: Awam Amkpa, New York University
Archetypes, Stereotypes and Polytypes:
Theatres of the Black Atlantic
Faculty Respondent: Hershini Young, SUNY-Buffalo
Student Respondent: Olateju Adesida, Northwestern University

11:00-11:15 Break

11:15-12:45 Panel 2
Moderator: Tracy Vaughn, Northwestern University
Keynote: Brandi Catanese, University of California-Berkeley
“Are We There Yet?”: Race, Redemption, and Black. White.
Faculty Respondent: Paul Bryant Jackson, Miami University of Ohio
Student Respondent: Javon Johnson, Northwestern University

12:45-1:45 Lunch

2:00-3:30 Panel 3
Moderator: Jennifer DeVere Brody, Northwestern University
Keynote: Louis Chude-Sokei, UC-Santa Cruz
“The Darky Act Makes Brothers of Us All”:
Pan-African Soundings of the African American Voice.
Faculty Respondent: Sandra Richards, Northwestern University
Student Respondent: Lori Baptista, Northwestern University

3:45-5:15 Panel 4
Moderator: Huey Copeland, Northwestern University
Keynote: Daphne Brooks, Princeton University
“Fucking A”:
Toward A Genealogy of Black Feminist Profanity
Faculty Respondent: Harvey Young, Northwestern University
Student Respondent: Tamara Roberts, Northwestern University

5:15 Closing Remarks:
Stephanie Batiste, Carnegie Mellon University

8:00 pm Staged Reading: “Sweet Tea” A performance based on
the oral histories of black gay men of the South.
E. Patrick Johnson, Northwestern University
Intro: Cedric Brown, Black Gay Letters & Arts Movement (BGLAM)
of San Francisco
Performance Response: D. Soyini Madison, UNC-Chapel Hill
Wallis Theater, Theater & Interpretation Center
1949 Campus Drive

Book Party for Kevin Powell

Please join Soft Skull Press,
The Wylie Agency,
Akila Worksongs, and
McNally Robinson Booksellers

for a celebration of Kevin Powell's 7th book


SOMEDAY WE'LL ALL BE FREE

Thursday, September 21, 2006
7PM-10PM

at MCNALLY ROBINSON BOOKSELLERS
50 Prince Street, between Lafayette and Mulberry
The SOHO section of New York City

Drinks and light fare
Admission is FREE and NO RSVP needed
For more information please call 212.274.1160

About KEVIN POWELL and SOMEDAY WE'LL ALL BE FREE

Acclaimed writer and political activist KEVIN POWELL publishes his 7th book, a bold and passionate collection of three new essays on freedom, democracy, and justice in America, as inspired by the tragedies of Hurricane Katrina and September 11th, and the 2004 presidential election.


"The enlightening essays in Someday We'll All Be Free are an interpretive collage of tragic events in American life that are redefining our debates about civil liberties and the unspoken expendability of the poor."
—The Washington Post

"As a charismatic speaker, leader, and a very good writer, Kevin Powell has the courage...to be fully human, and this will bring the deepest revolution of all."
—Gloria Steinem

“When you consider the intelligence and breadth of Kevin Powell's writing and activism, you come to the conclusion that there may be no better spokesperson and representative for a generation that has too long been counted out.”
—asha bandele


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An award-winning writer, Kevin Powell is the author or editor of six previous books. He is also a public speaker, social activist, entrepreneur, and hiphop historian. Powell is routinely featured in the media with his provocative insights on political and cultural issues, and he has published and lectured extensively, in America, and abroad. Powell resides in New York City, the borough of Brooklyn.