| Welcome back : My Profile | Logout |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
  A Study in Brotherhood at the 40th New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival New Orleans, LA - "That really happened," I said to my friends Saturday morning. It was a statement and a question - rhetorical and jokingly unsure. We all laughed. I was in New Orleans, it was Jazz Fest, and when the saints went marching in, we were in the number.  The evening before, after cleaning up from opening day at Jazz Fest, we find a few moments of rest before making our way over to the historic House of Blues in New Orleans' famed French Quarter. The Soul Rebel's Brass Band and Troy 'Trombone Shorty' Andrews & Orleans Avenue Band are headlining the evening. My friends Ayo and Stella are friends with Troy, so we get in for free. As we are going inside we are handed backstage passes. Wait... backstage passes? "Landon, you were just handed a backstage pass at the House of Blues," I said to myself. "I know man. This is wild..." I said back to myself, not knowing what else to say.
Backstage turns out to be the side-of-the-stage, a small standing-only area literally arms-reach from the spotlight. Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue Band are already on stage when we arrive. The crowd is live, the music is alive, and I am having an out-of-body experience. During the show, there are people coming and going backstage. There are family and friends, and likely some others like me, not sure how this all happened to them. As we are coming to the midway point of the set, the door opens and I begin talking to myself again. "Say bruh, I think that's Wynton Marsalis." "Say bruh," I respond, "That is Wynton Marsalis. That is Wynton Marsalis." I say it one more time hoping my excitement is not about to set my baldhead to illuminating the darkened backstage area. Shortly after Wynton arrives, Troy introduces him and welcomes him onto the stage. What happens next is an amazing display of brotherhood. Wynton raises his horn and shows us that he is the older brother. There is an ease to his jazz perfection. He is as cool as his jeans and brown loafers. Not to be out done by the elder brother, the 23-year old horn player uses every muscle in his body to blow out sounds and rhythms three times his age. The two continue to go back and forth and at times together down the unchartered musical journey. They end with the New Orleans favorite, 'When the Saints Go Marching In.' The beauty of the whole experience was found in the respect that the two show one another during the show. The older brother and mentor Wynton, never once upstages the younger brother. He recognizes and respects Troy's talent as being well beyond his young years. Troy responds by rising to the occasion of the older brother dropping in, not feeling challenged, but supported and loved - affirmed. And that is brotherhood at its finest. It challenges and affirms, calls to account and believes the other can. Brotherhood is having somewhere to go and someone to follow, a journey to share and a path to chart. Brotherhood is going along together and being able to go along by one's self, finding someone new along the way.  Landon J. Adams is a senior associate with Community Development Associates, the management consulting group for the 2025 Campaign.Other blog entries by this author: Me and My Brothers 9-07-2009 1:04 (EST) A Study in Brotherhood 5-04-2009 :07 (EST) My Encounter with Hope 4-05-2009 4:45 (EST) |
"Real Men Dance: Oakland's Turf Dancing Goes Global" 8-08-2010 by 2025 Campaign The Oakland-based video crew YAKfilms has been documenting – and in part, shaping – TURF dancing for a few years now. YAKfilms posted "Dancing in the Rain" on YouTube in November. Ten months and 300K hits later, the video is finally being posted on blogs stateside, says Savion. 0 commentsUsing YouTube Insight, a web analytics tool, Savion has been able to track the video's hits. "Dancing in the Rain" first got traction in Germany, then France, Brazil, Russia and Denmark, Savion says. READ "Post-Racial? Go Ask a Black Man: Fourteen Examples of Racism in Criminal Justice System" 8-08-2010 by 2025 Campaign The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people. 0 commentsSaying the US criminal system is racist may be politically controversial in some circles. But the facts are overwhelming. No real debate about that. Below I set out numerous examples of these facts. The question is - are these facts the mistakes of an otherwise good system, or are they evidence that the racist criminal justice system is working exactly as intended? Is the US criminal justice system operated to marginalize and control millions of African Americans? READ "Winning the War Against Black Families: Obama Signs Historic Legislation" 8-08-2010 by 2025 Campaign The "War on Drugs," which more appropriately should be considered a war against the civil and human rights of the Black community, has lost the full potential of one of its mightiest weapons—the disproportionate targeting, prosecution, and imprisonment of Black drug users. President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, passed by both the House and Senate with bi-partisan support, and severely reduces the disparity of prison sentences faced by Black people charged with drug crimes and begin to reverse the crash course our communities has been on for decades. Reduce but not eradicate. 0 commentsREAD "Addressing Childhood Poverty Would Greatly Improve Adult Outcomes for Black Children" 8-08-2010 by Rhonda Tsoi-A-Fatt It is widely understood that adult outcomes are tied to childhood life experiences and family economic circumstances. Yet this country, among the world's richest, has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the world. For black children, the rate is exponentially worse. As a result, black children and youth are less likely to graduate high school, finish college, land good jobs or raise children who aren't poor. Improving adult outcomes and ensuring more adults lead productive lives requires addressing childhood poverty, particularly among black children who are more likely than their counterparts to grow up poor. 0 commentsREAD "Sometimes, Your Job Comes Home With You" 7-06-2010 by Pendarvis Harshaw On Wednesday June 30th NPR aired this story I produced on Oscar Grant. On Thursday, July 1st, I made this video about businesses in downtown Oakland, CA preparing for threat of riots after the trial's verdict is released. And on Friday July 2nd, I posted this video of me interviewing Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, and my work for the week was complete. READ "Can We Remix the Media?" 7-06-2010 by Cheo Tyehimba Taylor Try this: Google "black man" in the news section of Google's website. Chances are the list of news stories it retrieves will be an assortment of articles that in some degree depict males of African descent as less educated, less responsible, and hyper-violent. On the other end of the spectrum, black males are also represented in the media as comedians, athletes, rappers, irresponsible fathers, etc. Nothing new, right? Wrong. Now we can flip the script and literally change what we see in the media. 0 commentsREAD "Interrupting Violence" 7-06-2010 by David Muhammad I was asked to sit on a panel with legendary Black filmmaker Robert Townsend and others to view and critique "The Interrupters," a short on Chicago' CeaseFire initiative. CeaseFire is an innovative violence prevention model that has been touted as one of the most effective crime fighting programs in the country. CeaseFire deploys street outreach workers to the most violent, devastated neighborhoods in Chicago to mediate conflicts, stop retaliatory shootings, and gather pertinent intelligence on brewing problems that could lead to further violence. The work is intense and their track record has been remarkable. 0 commentsREAD "Why Healthy Communities Matter for Boys of Color" 7-06-2010 by 2025 Campaign What makes a community healthy? That was the question posed to teenagers by Youth UpRising in Oakland, California. The mostly African-American youth responded that it is a place where bullets don't fly, where their friends are not buried before they're old enough to vote, where there are fewer liquor stores than there are grocery stores. READ "Can Therapy Save Our Youth? " 7-06-2010 by James Morgan A vision was fulfilled in January 2004 that would mean not only the fulfillment of a dream of three young African American men in the greater Newark, New Jersey area but also a glimmer of hope for a sadly underserved population in the state of New Jersey. The vision is Project 99, a clinical therapy service provider that is literally saving young black lives. 0 commentsREAD "Economic Picture Still Bleak for Black Males" 7-06-2010 by 2025 Campaign n June, the official unemployment for Black males stood at 18.4%. This marked an increase from the reported 17.8% in May. Since the beginning of the Great Recession in December 2007 when the Black male unemployment rate was 9.9%, almost the number of unemployed Black men has almost doubled. For Black male teens (ages 16-19), unemployment in June stood at 43.2 %; in December 2007, the unemployment rate for young Black men was 39.4%. These figures were announced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday, July 3 and published in the new monthly report, "Black Employment and Unemployment in June 2010" released by the University of California, Berkeley's Center for Labor Research and Education. 0 commentsREAD "Black fathers are much farther along than many think " 6-03-2010 by Cheo Tyehimba Taylor Back in the mid-nineties, I read novelist John Edgar Wideman's book "Fatheralong," a collection of essays which were brilliant meditations on black fathers and sons, race and society. The title came from a gospel song called "Farther Along," which sounded like "father along" to Wideman when he was a boy. Now, more than a generation since his book first appeared, it's ironic how, in many ways, black fathers are "farther along" than we get credit for. 0 commentsREAD "Even In Financial Downturn Crime Drops Throughout US" 6-02-2010 by David Muhammad Even in the economic meltdown the country has been in for the past few years, violent crime has been falling in many major cities in the country. Big cities like New York, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Oakland, CA and others have recorded significant drops in crime 0 commentsREAD "8th Grade Math Wiz" 6-02-2010 by 2025 Campaign Bakare Awakoaiye, an 8th grade student at Ile Omode, completed a 4 unit course in Algebra 2 at Laney College in Oakland this year. 0 commentsBakare has attended Ile Omode since entering kindergarten in 2001 and has shown a strength in all subjects. In 2003, our school instituted the "Math Revolution" program, and over 40% of our students were placed a grade ahead in math. Some students were advanced a 2nd time, and have shined tremendously. According to the school's director, Jahi Awakoaiye, "over 80% of our students are now a grade ahead in math". READ "The Death of White Supremacy in the Classroom" 6-01-2010 by James Morgan Looks like Winston Churchill's famous quote, "History is written by the victors" is truer that it ever was. Just ask all the black and brown families in Arizona whose children will be denied a true picture of our history. 0 commentsREAD "That Very Same Corner" 6-01-2010 by Pendarvis Harshaw "Money over Bullsh*t" was the name of the song. I couldn't remember it for the life of me. I searched the whole Nas catalog looking for this quote: 0 comments"Seen niggas live-laugh-party- and die in that very same corner." It had been stuck in my head all of last semester. READ "The boys in our 'hoods" 6-01-2010 by Kevin Powell The most profound part of my day was spent with formerly incarcerated young Black and Latino males of the New York City Justice Corps program, the Brooklyn version, based out of the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation. My long-time friend Kizzie Brown runs the program, and she is always working to get men in there who these boys from our 'hoods can relate to. 0 commentsREAD "New Orleans, Stand up!" 5-04-2010 by Trupania Bonner Oil spills, Katrina and insufficient census funding won't stop us from being counted... The Gulf oil spill crisis comes as Louisiana will almost certainly lose a seat in Congress after the 2010 census. Damage from the spill could further devastate one of the worst budget crunches to hit the state in 20 years. 0 commentsREAD "Honoring Malcolm's Legacy Amidst Release of his Murderer" 5-04-2010 by James Morgan I sat down with Dr. Charles Johnson, history Professor at Howard University to get some insight on what the potential implications of Hagan's release could be as well as the historical significance of the murder of Malcolm X. 0 commentsREAD "How to rebuild a Black man" 5-04-2010 by David Muhammad The Washington Post recently covered a sensational drive-by shooting that demonized a 14 year-old black male, who was wrongfully accused. We invited them to cover a positive story. They declined. Meet Brandon McMillion. 0 commentsREAD "Improving the lives of black boys" 5-04-2010 by Dawn Turner Trice When Bryan Echols was at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in the early 1990s, his father would drive him to and from school. Once, during one of their many road trips, Echols made a confession to his dad. 0 commentsREAD "Sandra Bullock's Baby: A Curious Case" 5-04-2010 by Lola Adesioye First, it was Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Then it was Madonna. Now Sandra Bullock has joined the collective of celebrities adopting black babies. 0 commentsREAD "Man Up Campaign Selects Young Leaders to Stop Violence Against Women " 4-05-2010 by 2025 Campaign Last month, Man Up, a global campaign, launched in September of 2009, to activate youth to stop violence against women and girls, brought together artists, athletes and activists in New York committed to stopping violence against women and girls to announce the prestigious team of young delegates chosen to lead the campaign's global movement. 0 commentsREAD "The Blind Side of March Madness" 4-05-2010 by 2025 Campaign It is time to boost graduation rates for a number of NCAA tournament basketball teams with poor academic records and indefensible disparities in the grad rates of white and black players. 0 commentsREAD "M1 of Hip Hop Duo Dead Prez on Self-Determination, Black Men and New Album" 4-05-2010 by James Morgan One half of the legendary hip hop duo known as Dead Prez, M1 (real name Mutulu Olugbala) has been hard at work on the groups new album in which they discuss many of the current issues facing the global African community. 0 commentsREAD "Do Not Count Us Out" 4-05-2010 by Ray Upchurch Recently I've become more aware of a disturbing pattern that if we do not catch and correct we may soon see the extinction of the Black Male. 0 commentsAfter reading the first line you may think that I am talking about the "prison to cradle pipeline," or the disappearing father or the startling statistics on single female-headed households. I am not. I've started to recognize the subtle dismissal of very negative stereotypes that go unnoticed, unchallenged and even accepted in our own community. READ "Has the Obama Presidency Destroyed Black Leadership? " 4-05-2010 by David Muhammad The election of the first Black President of the United States was met with euphoria in Black America. His campaign was initially met with skepticism by the Black community but as he became more familiar to the country his excellence and brilliance was understood and celebrated. Eventually, Black America was electrified by the candidacy of Barack Obama and helped him win with the highest Black turnout in electoral history. 1 commentsREAD "Charter school in tough neighborhood gets all its seniors into college" 3-07-2010 by 2025 Campaign The entire senior class at Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school has been accepted to four-year colleges. At last count, the 107 seniors had earned spots at 72 schools across the nation. 1 commentsMayor Richard Daley and Chicago Public Schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at an all-school assembly at Urban Prep Academy for Young Men in Englewood this morning to congratulate them. It's the first graduating class at Urban Prep since it opened its doors in 2006. Huberman applauded the seniors for making CPS shine. READ "Juvenile Justice Leader Releases Interactive U.S. Data Map Revealing Racial Disparities by State" 3-03-2010 by Shadi Rahimi The San Francisco-based national nonprofit W. Haywood Burns Institute (BI) is announcing the availability of the first-ever "Racial and Ethnic Disparities Juvenile Justice Data Map" on its website, http://www.burnsinstitute.org. 0 commentsREAD "A Failing Approach in Juvenile Justice" 3-03-2010 by David Muhammad For far too long an ineffective and expensive strategy has been utilized to try to address juvenile crime – irresponsible massive incarceration. 0 commentsIncarcerating large numbers of youth – especially non-violent offenders has been a costly, unsuccessful approach that has yet to change – even with experts around the country acknowledging its failure and local and state budgets reeling. READ "Ring Leader" 3-03-2010 by Pendarvis Harshaw She looked dead in the camera and asked: "if these guys are going around the country talking about manhood...why aren't any of them married?" 1 commentsREAD "Make a Socially Responsible Investment in Young Black Men" 3-03-2010 by Cedric Brown In 2004, the Mitchell Kapor Foundation began noticing a disturbing trend in the San Francisco Bay Area. Black male applicants were visibly absent from the selection pool for the educational programs run by our sister organization, the Level Playing Field Institute. At the same time, we were dismayed by the news of several shootings of young black men, among them a college-bound high school senior. 0 commentsREAD "A Snapshot of African Americans in Higher Education" 3-03-2010 by 2025 Campaign Today African-Americans students are still challenged by the historical vestiges of discrimination as well as the barriers associated with financial and other factors. The nearly 40 million African Americans residing in the United States—representing approximately 13 percent of the total population—are three times more likely (24 percent) to live in poverty than Whites (8 percent). Further, opportunity gaps related to college enrollment and completion persist for African-American students with only 11 percent being enrolled in postsecondary education. 0 commentsREAD "Live From Death Row, But For How Long?" 2-01-2010 by James Morgan December 9, 1981 is a day that is fresh in the memory of former Black Panther and famed journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal. It was on that day that Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death by the state of Pennsylvania. Ever since his incarceration there has been a tremendous international outcry for his case to be retried and even for the ruling to be overturned. In 2008, a federal appeals court ruled that his death penalty ruling should be set aside, paving the way for a potential retrial. 0 commentsREAD "Illinois Task Force on the Condition of the African American Male Joins 2025 Campaign" 2-01-2010 by 2025 Campaign In 2007, history was made when the Illinois Senate Bill 776 (SB776), known as the Illinois Department of Human Services Act, was amended to create the “Illinois Task Force on the Condition of the African American Male.” On January 13, 2010, the Sponsors of SB776 submitted Bills on behalf of the Illinois Task. The Bills represent the 2025 Campaign’s five focus areas and their inclusion are significant step forward in our drive to change the game for Black men and boys in Illinois. 0 commentsREAD "Barack Hussein Obama: The Last American President?" 2-01-2010 by David Goldberg Barack Obama will be the last significant U.S. President. After him, the office will become a figment of entertainment and ritual, like English monarchy. Assuming there is no authoritarian backlash, his successor in death or defeat must be an even more spectacular embodiment of the American Underdog myth... and practically omniscient when it comes to planetary oversight. Bring on the first vegan half-Mexican born-again openly gay single parent Republican divorcée with a doctorate in future studies! 0 commentsREAD "Doing the Right Thing in Haiti" 2-01-2010 by Cheo Tyehimba If you cry for Haiti, let your tears mobilize you. For those watching the non-stop media reports streaming out of Haiti conveying the brutal complexity of the 7.0 earthquake and its aftermath, it'll be important to keep your eyes open. Things move very fast from here on out. The disaster stories coming to us now will be colored in many hues, for many reasons. 1 commentsREAD "2025 Campaign Meets with Obama Adminstration" 2-01-2010 by 2025 Campaign On October 9, 2009, the 2025 Campaign for Black Men and Boys' National Steering Committee met with several members of President Obama's administration during roundtable discussions. The meeting offered the campaign a rare and important opportunity to present our work to key administration officials working in domestic policy, education, and civil rights. 0 commentsREAD "Washington Koen Media Presents the "Beyond The Bricks" Project " 2-01-2010 by 2025 Campaign The "Beyond the Bricks" Project is a film and discussion tour produced with the goal of sharing and promoting solutions to one of America's critical issues in education: the consistently low performance and graduation rates of Black males in the public school system. 0 commentsREAD "Black Youth Rising: Activism and Radical Healing in Urban America" 1-11-2010 by 2025 Campaign Black Youth Rising is a book that restores hope and possibility to the lives of urban black youth. In this pathbreaking account, author Shawn Ginwright details the powerful positive impact that community-based organizations can have in rebuilding the lives of urban black youth, in a process he calls radical healing. 0 commentsREAD "Nation's Largest Mentoring Network Taps Black Fraternities to Recruit Mentors" 1-11-2010 by 2025 Campaign Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and leaders of the nation's largest African American fraternities enter National Mentoring Month 2010 with a bold action plan to significantly increase the number of black Big Brothers, beginning this year. 0 commentsREAD "An Open Letter to Mark Ingram (for his message to a Black man behind bars)" 1-11-2010 by Pendarvis Harshaw When I speak of your performance, I'm not speaking of the yards from scrimmage, or the two-touchdowns, or even the honorable prayer thereafter each touchdown. When I speak of your performance, I am referring to the post game interview with ABC's field reporter. READ "Attorney General Holder Picks Up Black Male Theme" 1-11-2010 by Dr. Ronald Walters (NNPA) - Attorney General Eric Holder in a few recent speeches at the Roosevelt, NY Memorial Presbyterian Church, at a church in Queens, NY, and at a Townhall meeting at Morehouse College in Atlanta has rehashed the theme of the irresponsible Black male. It seems like something of a campaign by President Barack Obama and his Attorney General that sounds so much like the Conservative playbook on race we have witnessed for the past 30 years. 0 commentsREAD "Black Marriage Crisis: The Assault on Black Love " 1-11-2010 by James Morgan On December 22, 2009 my mother and I happened to watch an ABC news report, "Why are 42% of Successful Black Women Single?" Since that time this clip has been making the rounds on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. I believe there is a propaganda campaign that exists to tear Black men and Black women away from one another and is manifested in much of today's media. I cannot however deny the fact that there are many wonderful women in America today who have trouble finding that special someone and even more who never get to walk down the aisle. 0 commentsREAD |
© 2010 Twenty-First Century Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Original Site Design and Production by Forwardever Media, LLC.