Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
Bringing the Community and Resistance Tour to your City
23 April 2010
by Jordan Flaherty, Board Member and Contributing Writer for AnaiRhoads.org.
AnaiRhoads.org — The COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE tour seeks to communicate about current struggles for justice and liberation, from nooses hung in the northern Louisiana town of Jena to women organizing inside prisons, from resistance to school privatization to post-Katrina community organizing and cultural resistance. The tour also seeks to connect communities of liberation, and to build relationships between grassroots activists and independent media.
This tour is for anyone interested in issues of health care, education, criminal justice, housing, or the ways in which systems of racism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression intersect with these struggles.
Sponsored by Left Turn Magazine, Haymarket Books, and other radical and independent media projects from around the US, the COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE TOUR is an exciting movement-building opportunity. Beginning August, 2010, the tour will bring performances, workshops, and inspiration to towns and cities in across the US.
Featured Speakers include Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad and Victoria Law (see below for bios).
For more information on the tour, including how to bring the tour to your city, please email neworleans@leftturn.org or nick@haymarketbooks.org.
You can also check out the tour website here.
FEATURED SPEAKERS INCLUDE:
Jesse Muhammad: Energetic, inspiring and effective are just some of the words audiences have used to describe the writings and messages delivered by writer, news reporter, artist, publicist and photojournalist Jesse Muhammad. Brother Jesse, a native of Houston, Texas, started contributing to the Final Call Newspaper in 2004 and was appointed as its Southwest Regional Correspondent.
In 2005, after receiving rave reviews for his reporting on stories that mainstream media tends to over look, he was appointed as an official Staff Writer for the FCN, which is the only national Black-owned newspaper. Since that time, he has gained worldwide recognition for his consistent coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the continuing struggle of its survivors. In 2007, he was credited with bringing national and international attention to the case of the “Jena Six”, and helped to mobilize the 50,000 plus attendees to the historic “Jena Six” rally in September of that year. He has been a featured commentator on various television and radio shows in Houston, New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Louisiana, and as far as Ghana. His writings are now read in many print and online newspapers and magazines throughout the world.
Victoria Law is a writer, photographer and mother. After a brief stint as a teenage armed robber, she became involved in prisoner support. In 1996, she helped start Books Through Bars-New York City, a group that sends free books to prisoners nationwide. In 2000, she began concentrating on the needs and actions of women in prison, drawing attention to their issues by writing articles and giving public presentations. Since 2002, she has worked with women incarcerated nationwide to produce Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison and has facilitated having incarcerated women’s writings published in larger publications, such as Clamor magazine, the website “Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance” and make/shift magazine. Her book Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women (PM Press 2009) is the culmination of over 7 years of listening to, writing about and supporting incarcerated women nationwide and resulted in this former delinquent winning the 2009 PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award.
In 1995, she became involved with ABC No Rio, a collectively-run arts center on New York’s Lower East Side, a move that resulted in changing her lifestyle from delinquency to social justice with an arts focus. In 1997, she organized a group of activist photographers to transform one of No Rio’s upstairs tenement apartments into a black-and-white photo darkroom for community use. She has also participated in and curated numerous exhibitions at No Rio’s gallery, many with themes addressing social and political issues such as incarceration, grassroots efforts to rebuild New Orleans, Zapatista organizing, police brutality and squatting.
In 2003, she collaborated with China Martens to create Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind, a workshop addressing the specific (and often unacknowledged) needs of parents and children in radical movements; and has co-facilitated discussions in Baltimore, New York City, Providence, Montreal, Minneapolis, Detroit and Boston. They are editing a handbook for allies of radical parents by the same name.
Jordan Flaherty is a journalist and community organizer based in New Orleans. He was the first journalist with a national audience to write about the Jena Six case, and played an important role in bringing the story to worldwide attention. His post-Katrina writing in ColorLines Magazine shared a journalism award from New America Media for best Katrina-related coverage in the Ethnic press, and audiences around the world have seen the news segments he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, GritTV, and Democracy Now. His new book, FLOODLINES: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six will be released this summer from Haymarket Press. For more information on the book, see floodlines.org.
Jordan has appeared as a guest on a wide range of television and radio shows, including CNN Morning, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Headline News, Grit TV, and both local and nationally-syndicated shows on National Public Radio. He has been a regular correspondent or frequent guest on Democracy Now, Radio Nation on Air America, News and Notes, and many other outlets. As a white southerner who speaks honestly about race, Jordan Flaherty has been regularly published in Black progressive forums such as BlackCommentator.org and Black Agenda Report, and is a regular guest on Black radio stations and programs such as Keep Hope Alive With Reverend Jesse Jackson.
Jordan is an editor of Left Turn Magazine, a national publication dedicated to covering social movements. He has written about politics and culture for the Village Voice, New York Press, Labor Notes, Radical Society, and in several anthologies, including the South End Press books Live From Palestine and What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race and the State of the Nation, the University of Georgia Press book What is a City, and the AK Press book Red State Rebels.
Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six
06 April 2010
AnaiRhoads.org — Floodlines (written by Jordan Flaherty, introduction by Democracy Now host Amy Goodman, and forward by civil rights attorney Tracie Washington) is a firsthand account of community, culture, and resistance in New Orleans in the years before and after Katrina. The book weaves the interconnected stories of Mardi Gras Indians, Arab and Latino immigrants, public housing residents, gay rappers, spoken word poets, victims of police brutality, out of town volunteers, and grassroots activists. From post-Katrina evacuee camps, to torture testimony at Angola Prison, to organizing with the family members of the Jena Six, Floodlines tells the stories behind the headlines, from an unforgettable time and place in history.
What People Are Saying About Floodlines:
“This is the most important book I’ve read about Katrina and what came after. In the tradition of Howard Zinn this could be called “The People’s History of the Storm.” Jordan Flaherty was there on the front lines. He compellingly documents the racism, poverty, and neglect at the core of this national failure and the brave, generous, grassroots revolutionaries who saved and continue to save a city and a people. It is my favorite kind of book – great storytelling, accurate accounting, a call for engagement and change. – Eve Ensler, playwright The Vagina Monologues, activist and founder of V-Day.
“Jordan Flaherty is one of the best and most courageous writers in America today. Beyond his obvious writing skills, what I admire most about Jordan is his dedication to truth-telling, to bringing the real and whole America to the American people. At a time in our nation when there is so much distortion of current events and history, Jordan Flaherty represents the core of who we truly are. And what we are capable of being as citizens of this ever-changing world.” – Kevin Powell, Author of Open Letters to America.
“Jordan Flaherty is an independent journalist for the Hip-Hop generation. As a white anti-imperialist who is committed to social and racial justice, Jordan brings out the voices of the victims and survivors of Hurricane Katrina and the levee breach in New Orleans. This book not only speaks truth to power but is a rallying cry for all of us to take action. With this definitive work, the voices of the grassroots, the communities resisting displacement, finally have a voice.” – Rosa Clemente, 2008 Green Party VP Candidate, Hip Hop Activist and Journalist.
CHECK OUT FLOODLINES ON THE COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE TOUR
From economic crisis in the US to post-earthquake devastation in Haiti, this new tour of grassroots organizers and journalists will focus on the challenges we face today, and the ways that communities are coming together to build another world. For anyone interested in issues of health care, education, criminal justice, or the ways in which systems of racism, patriarchy and other forms of oppression intersect with these issues, this is the tour for you.
Sponsored by Left Turn Magazine, and other radical and independent media projects from around the US, the COMMUNITY AND RESISTANCE TOUR is an exciting movement-building opportunity. Beginning August, 2010, the tour will bring performances, workshops, and inspiration to towns and cities in across the US.
For more information on the tour, including how to bring the tour to your city, please email neworleans@leftturn.org.
TEACHERS AND PROFESSORS:
Please assign FLOODLINES: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six in your classes for Fall of 2010. The book has already been added to the curriculum for courses at Xavier University and University of New Orleans.
PRE-ORDER on Amazon here.
More Reviews of Floodlines:
“Jordan Flaherty is a journalist who causes revolution with the printed word. This book is a testament to the power of the pen when its in the hand of a freedom fighter and a global thinker. While others are just writing these stories, Jordan Flaherty is living them.” – Jesse Muhammad, Final Call Newspaper.
“Since Hurricane Katrina hit, Jordan Flaherty has, with spectacular dedication, chronicled New Orleans’s political changes with care and passion. His stories are the ones we all want to read: the tireless work of organizers in the city, the obstacles they face and the triumphs they celebrate…which ultimately inspire all of us. – Daisy Hernandez, Executive Editor, ColorLines, the newsmagazine on race and politics.
“Want to know what really happened to regular people during and after Katrina? Read this book and get the real stories. Read this book and get angry. Read this book and get busy making changes.” — Bill Quigley, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights.
“Floodlines is a powerful, moving account of one organizer’s witnessing of the struggles in the Deep South, and fighting to make a difference. Jordan masters the insider’s voice, capturing the real fight from within the heart of the movement.” – Jennifer Vitry, Executive Director, NOLA Investigates.
“Jordan Flaherty’s work has been indispensable for social justice activists and organizations around the country who care about the inequities and social injustices that Hurricane Katrina revealed and exacerbated. He brings the sharp analysis and dedication of a seasoned organizer to his writing, and insightful observation to his reporting. Jordan unfailingly has his ear to the ground in a city that continues to reveal the floodlines of structural racism in America.” – Tram Nguyen, author, We Are All Suspects Now: Untold Stories from Immigrant Communities after 9/11.
“After the flood, many of us turned to Jordan Flaherty’s dispatches for real-time real talk about what was really going on in his beloved New Orleans. His from-the-low-ground accounts of how the politics of abandonment, the politics of containment, and racism combined to devastate this proud global city were brave and unsettling. His passionate, unsparing writing on the community organizers and the people struggling to make themselves and their city whole reminded us of the stakes. At this crucial point in American history, Floodlines captures the urgency of New Orleans and reveals why its recovery and renewal is one of the most important battles for justice in our time.” – Jeff Chang, author, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation.
About the Author:
Jordan Flaherty is a writer and community organizer based in New Orleans. He was the first journalist with a national audience to write about the Jena Six case, and played an important role in bringing the story to worldwide attention. His award-winning post-Katrina journalism has been published in hundreds of publications, and audiences around the world have seen the news segments he’s produced for Al-Jazeera, TeleSur, PressTV, and Democracy Now. He has also appeared as a guest on a wide range of television and radio shows, including CNN Morning, Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Headline News, Grit TV, Keep Hope Alive with Reverend Jesse Jackson, and both local and nationally-syndicated shows on National Public Radio.
Recent Reporting by Jordan Flaherty:
New Orleans’ Heart is in Haiti
Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans
Discriminatory Housing Lockouts Amid Post-Katrina Rebuilding
Homeless and Struggling in New Orleans
For news and updates from social justice organizing in Louisiana, please click here.
Anti-War Rallies Hit World-wide
by: Anai Rhoads
January 17, 2003
As we reach the 12 year anniversary of the Gulf War, protests arguing against a new war against Iraq have escalated: the voice of campaigners in Palestine, Iraq and Turkey was publicised today as being an effective tool against the United States’ plans for an invasion of Iraq.
Palestine Empathises With Iraqi Civilians
An estimated 3,000 Palestinians marched through the streets of Gaza City, demanding the United States refrain from an attack on Iraq. Although not as often discussed in American media, Palestinians have held several rallies and marches in defiance of aggression against innocent Iraqis.
The majority of protestors were peaceful. Even though Yasser Arafat was in strong support of Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War, he has made clear that a peaceful resolution with Iraq is important this time around.
More hard-line approaches were taken by some demonstrators, with anti-American chants and pro-Saddam picket signs. Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior member of the Hamas, announced that Arabs and Muslims plan to focus on any American targets if the United States and Britain decide to wage war on Iraq.
American Concern
Americans are worried about the implications home and abroad of an attack on Iraq with regards to further terrorism. Anxiety about terrorism has been see-sawing for several months in response to news about international incidents and threats to the country.
Overall concerns about a future threats have subsided somewhat, with numbers fearing such attacks dropping 5% from 73% in the past month alone. The proportion “very worried” has fallen from 31% after 9/11 to 18%. By comparison, personal concerns over terrorism have remained more stable. About four in ten (41%) say they are at least somewhat concerned about becoming a victim of a terrorist attack; that figure has changed little since last January (38%). [1]
Iraq Responds To The Pressure
In a televised speech, Hussein stated, “We have determined and planned to defeat the aggressors. We have mobilised our abilities, including those of the army, people and leadership.”
This statement has been viewed as intimidation by some, but for others is as a mere acknowledgement that the United States’ government is not backing down from its stance and is seeking full fledged war.
Cornering an oppressive dictator could spark a drastic reaction if he feels no alternative is available. It is an unpredictable situation that warrants a careful approach. Saddam will no doubt use his army to protect power and territory.
Polls are battling it out in hopes of a clear answer expressing the public’s true opinion on this topic. No one is truly prepared for or would consent to being bombed, yet both sides are racing to the finish line over accusations of WMD.
Turkey’s Involvement – Unclear
America has repeatedly requested that Turkey allow as many as 75,000 U.S. troops on their bases. The location is key for launching an attack into the northern territories of Iraq.
The Washington Post reported today that Turkish officials were close to permitting 15,000 American troops to be deployed in south-eastern Turkey, which borders Iraq. [2] This request has sparked debate within the country of Turkey as protesters made it clear where they stand today.
America Joins in Protest
Anti-war sentiments was high as thousands are preparing to join forces in Washington, D.C. protesting troop deployment and possible war. Tomorrow’s protest has been termed “unpatriotic”, but it sets to prove a point – a significant number of Americans are unsure if war is the answer. Rather than giving complete support to the administration’s plans, the public is seeking a peaceful solution to this crisis.
The thousands who are coming to Washington, D.C., oppose a criminal war in Iraq and demand instead that the hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked for the conflict instead be spent on preserving and creating jobs, better education, increased funding for better housing, and improved health care.
Americans have made the decision to educate themselves on the topic of Iraq. More are aware of the consequences of an unprovoked attack and know the aftermath may leave many dead, may possibly create a sense of anarchy in Iraq and cause the U.S. economy to nosedive further into failure. This list of course does not include the many displaced, wounded and resentful Iraqis that may not see this war as liberation, but instead a violent exorcism.
Media coverage of resistance world-wide should be a wake-up call to the administration to slow down. Civility goes a long way, and it is about all we have to ensure a positive outcome.
© Copyright 2003 AnaiRhoads.org
References:
[1] Public Wants Proof of Iraqi Weapons Programs Released: January 16, 2003.
[2] Turkey, U.S. Near Accord on Deployment By Karl Vick Washington Post Foreign Service.January 17, 2003; Page A15.
Further reading on the history and background of Iraq:
“Why Another War?: A Backgrounder on the Iraq Crisis”, 2nd Ed.,
Middle East Research and Information Project by Chris Toensing and Sarah Graham-Brown. Dated December.