7 More Days

Last week I mentioned the upcoming DVD series Noah's Arc and failed to mention its predecessor, The Closet. It premieres March 23rd. From an email from the producers:

Hello folks,

IN SEVEN DAYS IT ARRIVES!

The CLOSET the long awaited dvd-Drama Series from Senwot Nella Productions is complete with production and ready to go. IT IS HERE, IT IS NOW, IT IS THE CLOSET. On Tuesday, March 23, 2004 customers/fan will receive their first installment of the series with the second installment two weeks away from the March 23rd date. And the series begins.

A screening was held last night in Atlanta, Georgia and the response was overwhelming. Visit our website this week to read viewer's responses. The series has been accepted into the New York Film Festival which is held April 22nd - May 2nd and in the Las Vegas Film Festival held July 22nd - July 29.

Just wanted to keep you all informed. Have a great day!

Senwot Nella Productions
"Producing Unique Films Of Quality"

I'll wait to see if I'll watch the film at the New York Film Festival before possibly purchasing the DVD. More for the novelty of it all.

Same Fight, Different Era

I offer no additional comment to this longish article in today's Washington Post dealing with the struggle for Marriage Equality:

Blacks, Gays in Struggle of Values

Today, as gay-rights activists step up the battle for same-sex marriage, their relationship with African American leaders could be crucial. Yet the issue involves such a complex mix of religion and politics that the support of black leaders -- and the mantle of the civil rights movement -- is up for grabs. Distinguished figures have lined up on both sides.

The Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, one of the architects of the 1963 March on Washington, calls same-sex marriage an "abomination" that could destroy society. Along with a coalition of other faith leaders, the former D.C. delegate is pushing for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as a union of a man and a woman.

"For most black Americans who know our history, we do not want any further confusion about what a marriage and a family happen to be," said Fauntroy, a spokesman for the Alliance for Marriage, which helped craft the amendment President Bush has backed. "We have not yet recovered from the cruelties of slavery, which were based on the destruction of the family."

But Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a keynote speaker at the 1963 march, said such denunciations reek of the bigotry lobbed against blacks in the era of "separate-but-equal" schools and businesses -- a view shared by an increasingly visible number of gay men and lesbians who are black.

"I have fought too hard and too long against discrimination based on race and color not to stand up against discrimination based on sexual orientation,"Lewis wrote in a column for the Boston Globe that is featured on a gay rights Web site. > > >

On Fire

Donald has restarted his fotoblog/flog ( fire/chango yemaya\water ). It's hot! (You'd never know since it's taken me nearly a week to notice the occasion.)

A Strong Constitution

I couldn't make it to Sunday's rally to support Marriage Equality put together by Keith Boykin, et al due to my slow recovery from food poisoning. Earlier in the day there was a mean-spirited and ill-conceived gathering in the Bronx by Latino "Christians" led by hate-monger R---- D---. While I was at one time prepared to attend both -- to counter the hate at the Bronx rally and to show support at the City Hall gathering -- I just can't stomach the ignorance of D--- and like-minded fools. Maybe I was well enough to attend at least one, but the question of Marriage Equality (and really, it's not a question of if, but of when) just drains me. Donald is a better man because not only did he attend the Bronx hatefest, he provides a good dose of commentary with spare prose and some wonderful photos at the rally:

I didn't want to take any pictures until they raised their banner, but the faces in the crowd were compelling. I began to see how photographers can anesthesize themselves to their surroundings; you become a hunter for the picture that tells (and sells) the story. Understanding that made it easy for me to disassociate the anger and sadness I was feeling, walking back and forth surrounding myself with people who would deny my rights if it were their choice. What quelled my need for confrontation, for the most part, was the fact that I don't speak Spanish.

I will try to attend the next pro-active rally/event, but I can't make any promises. It's a continuation, in my opinion, of the Black Tax. Indeed, I'd describe it as a Black Fag Tax -- I'm discriminated against and most work thrice as hard to overcome the hate because I'm Black and Bi/Gay. Is it worth the energy to persuade others to drop the hate? Realistically, no; you're not preaching to the choir, but a determined bunch of idiots. With all due respect, for me it's just that simple. Those that don't want to be open to different people, ideas and ways are befitting of that word: idiot. This is especially so for People of Color, most notably African Americans. I don't care to debate the question of ownership of hurt. It's a futile dialogue. Discrimination is discrimination is discrimination. To have past champions of racial equality and inclusion join the hateful bunch in their drive to enshrine bigotry in the U.S. constitution does more harm to the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement than any fag ignorant of history and its meaning in that struggle.

One day we'll all be free, but it'll cost us all... dearly.

Another iPod Contest

This time from Doritos. Contestants can win the Grand prize of a 40-Gig iPod, with smaller prizes of $20 iTunes Gift Certificates. And you can play daily.

Writing Advice From A Sage

VIA Anil Dash's Daily Links Blog (OKay, this is beginning to get maddening. I stop myself several times a day from posting items inspired by reading Anil's daily links. It's like blogging crack.)

From 'Writing Advice'

Pay attention. Notice little things. Ask yourself how you feel. Ask yourself how he feels. Note the color. Pay attention to the language, yours and hers. Watch the interaction. Estimate the size. Listen. Listen harder.

I'm running out to get a couple of books and hope there is a marked improvement my blogging. Haven't felt good about this blog for a while and am re-thinking blogging. No, I'm not contemplating ending this, just retooling and maybe a long desired redesign.

We May Overcome

Another Gem from Miami Herald columinist Leonard Pitts, Jr. This time on the struggle for Marriage Equality--

Blacks should be supportive of gays' struggle

...[T]he comparison between the black struggle and the gay one is inexact. But here's the thing: Every freedom movement from Poland's labor uprising to America's feminism to China's Tiananmen Square protests has been compared to the civil rights movement. When Czechoslovakians threw off communist rule in 1989, they sang We Shall Overcome. Yet no one bothered to point out that the Czechs were never slighted in the U.S. Constitution, much less to accuse Poles of ''pimping'' the civil rights movement. What's that tell you?

It tells me this stinginess about the movement arises only when gays seek to embrace it. And that black people -- some of us, at least -- ought to be ashamed.

How can we of all people, we who know the weight of American oppression better than almost anyone, stand in the path of those who seek simple equality? How can we support writing anyone out of the Constitution when it took us so long to be written in?

And how can we stand with the very people -- social conservatives -- who not so long ago didn't want us in their churches, their schools, their parks or their restaurants? Yet more and more, we act and sound just like them.

We use our Bibles to justify our bigotry, just as they did.

We describe equality as unnatural, just as they did.

We invoke the sanctity of tradition, just as they did.

And we are wrong, just as they were.

Worse, we have wrapped our community in a conspiracy of silence, made being homosexual something one simply does not discuss. So that if you are black and gay or black and lesbian, there is often no sane thought of ''coming out,'' no safe place to be who you are. The black community has no resources for you, no tolerance of you, no compassion for you. Yes, there are exceptions, but not enough. Not nearly.

Is it any surprise, then, that blacks lead the nation in new cases of HIV and AIDS?

I need to read Pitts and other great columinists -- Breslin and McCarthy from Newsday come to mind -- on a regular basis and share their voices as soon as possible. I almost ignored this opinion piece until I had an additional opportunity to read it in its entirety. See, sometimes insomnia can be a good thing.

Can I Have One?! Puh-leezze!!

VIA Joi Ito

Dishonest Dubya. I'd add this to my wishlist if I could!

I Sooo Want One!

Dave Pogue writes about the cutting edge:

A TV That Cuts All Cords

Imagine a bright, beautiful 15-inch liquid crystal display screen - like a plasma, but with longer life and no risk of permanent burn-in - flanked by protruding round speakers that suggest a Picasso rendering of Mickey Mouse.

Here's the twist: Using the carrying handle at the top, you can bring the 11-pound screen anywhere in the house as you work, play or entertain, without being tethered to your home-theater setup. You can park this Sharp on the kitchen counter as you chop carrots, keep an eye on the game as you labor at the grill, catch the end of "The Apprentice" while you brush your teeth in the bathroom - all without wires or plugs.

Of course, I still want a combo VCR/DVD player, a DVR and digital cable. Not to mention a G5.

Another Step on the Road to Equality

I know two of the couples married on the steps of City Hall today. They both deserve to have their marriages recognized and legal. I'm loving the sight of my sometimes pastor being a renegade as well! Go Rev. Pat!!

Same-sex couples wed outside New York City Hall

By MIRIAM HILL/Philadelphia Inquirer

NEW YORK - The brides wore black and a groom cried as clerics who support same-sex marriage conducted wedding ceremonies on the steps of City Hall to try to pressure the city and state to legalize gay unions.

About 25 rabbis and ministers from various faiths assembled outside Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office as they blessed the unions of three same-sex couples.

The religious leaders said they were showing solidarity with two Unitarian Universalist ministers who face criminal charges in upstate New York for performing same-sex weddings, which Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has said state law does not now allow.

"This is a message to the world that our love matters," said Mel Bryant, 38, moments after he exchanged teary vows with his partner of five years, Bradley Curry, 40. They were attended by their Chihuahua, Seton.

Thursday's weddings were not legally sanctioned, and the couples were turned away when they sought marriage licenses from the city clerk before the ceremonies.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau said in a statement that his office would take no action against the participants.

"There has been no definitive ruling from the courts on the legal and constitutional issues surrounding same-sex marriages in New York," Morgenthau said. "The criminal courts are not the appropriate forum for the resolution of these issues; ultimately they will be resolved in civil lawsuits, at least two of which are now pending."

Bloomberg said the protesters should have conducted the ceremonies in Albany, the state capital, where lawmakers have the power to legalize same-sex marriages.

"If you want to change the law," Bloomberg said, "I would suggest that a demonstration in Albany would be more effective than a demonstration at City Hall."

The Rev. Pat Bumgardner, the lesbian pastor of Manhattan's Metropolitan Community Church, said the prosecution of the Unitarian Universalist ministers, Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey, who are to be arraigned Monday on misdemeanor charges of solemnizing civil marriages without a license, was unjust.

"It's selective prosecution at best," Bumgardner said.

Ruth Finkelstein, 49, and B.C. Craig, 40, were one of two lesbian couples married Thursday. They were attended by their son, Sam Craig, 3, who, like his mothers, wore black. The other female couple wed were Montel Cherry-Slack and Michelle Cherry-Slack, both 30, who had their last names legally changed.

Said B.C. Craig: "We're doing this to make public and real our love."

Too bad our mayor is such a punk and won't even take a stand on the issue.

Black Bigots Rally in Favor of Discrimination

I'm hoping a blogger who posts infrequently will air an exchange of emails he's had with a Black law student from Harvard. His (the blogger) arguments are the perfect response to bigots that should know better. I've been a little quiet lately, but shit like this is going to make me blow my top:

Black Clergy Brush Off Gay Marriage Link

More than two dozen black pastors added their voice to the critics of same-sex marriage, attempting to distance the civil rights struggle from the gay rights movement and defending marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

"When the homosexual compares himself to the black community, he doesn't know what suffering is," said the Rev. Clarence James, an African-American studies professor at Temple University.

James and 29 pastors rallied late Monday with their supporters at an Atlanta-area church where they signed a declaration outlining their beliefs on marriage and religion.

The declaration is meant to pressure state representatives to approve a constitutional ban on gay marriages, which will be considered again by the Georgia House as soon as this week.

Later on in the news item, more discouraging news:

Elsewhere Monday:

In Oregon, the county that was poised to become the state's second to allow gay marriage backed off until courts intervene. Commissioners in Benton County, home to Oregon State University and the liberal city of Corvallis, decided to stop issuing all marriage licenses until there is a court ruling on whether gay marriage is legal in Oregon. Commissioner Linda Modrell said Tuesday that panel members were assured that the issue would be decided as quickly as possible and feared the high cost of litigation and the possibility that county employees could be arrested.

In St. Paul, Minn., supporters of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage gathered by the thousands in one of the largest Capitol rallies in memory, waving hundreds of signs on the Capitol steps and spilling over onto the lawn and parking lot. The House is expected to pass the bill Wednesday, with a Senate committee planning to take up the measure later in the week.

In New York, two Unitarian Universalist ministers facing criminal counts for officiating at same-sex weddings pleaded innocent. Kay Greenleaf and Dawn Sangrey were charged after marrying 13 gay couples during a public ceremony in New Paltz, but the district attorney has said he does not expect to seek jail time.

In North Carolina's Durham County, a gay couple filed a lawsuit after being denied a marriage license. State law invalidates any claim of marriage between people of the same sex. Register of Deeds Willie Covington said the law gave him no choice.

Mac Diva has been posting her eyewitness accounts of the struggle for Marriage Equality in Oregon at her main blog (Silver Rights) and her general assignment blog, Mac-a-ro-nies.

Get Ready for Some True Mud Slingin'

The Washington Post's Tom Toles predicts the White House's response to Clark's charges. I'm already hearing rumors of a smear campaign that will focuse on his private life. Since I'm not one to spread lies and hate, I won't repeat what I've read and heard. And I'm 100% sure the campaign will kick off just before or during Condi Rice's public testimony. The Bush WH wants to keep eyes away from its incompetence.

Pepsi iTunes Giveaway Mini-FAQ

Some important reminders about Pepsi's iTunes Giveaway:

1. Q. When does the promotion end?
A. The Giveaway ends tomorrow (March 31st), kinda. After that date, those yellow caps won't be useful. However, you'll have until April 30th to download any free songs you've redeemed.

2. Q. I have several credits left to download. Are there any limits to what I can download?
A. Yes. Users can download no more than ten (10) songs per day and a total of 200 songs during the course of the promotion.

3. Q. Are there any restrictions placed on the songs downloaded during the promotion?
A. No. They'll work just like any other download from the iTunes Music Store. (More info is available at Apple's site.)

So far, I've redeemed eight songs. Five I've won on my own (five out of six bottles purchased!), two from a co-worker and the final song I picked up from a slushy Brooklyn sidewalk on the way to work during the last snowfall. I may buy a couple bottles tomorrow just to make it an even ten songs during the promotion.

* song of the moment: Speak Low by Andy Bey from the CD, American Song

Reading (English) Is Fundamental

Mac-a-ro-nies highlights a good liberal cause (btw, she's dead-on re: criticism of those that talk a big talk, but rarely follow thru):

Blogger David Anderson has a project he would like the blogosphere to take notice of. He resides in Costa Rica, a poor but promising country. He is the president of Grupo Utopia, a software development and consulting company. David is the parent of two young Costa Ricans, who are also American citizens. Unfortunately, most of their peers will not have access to the English language at home. They need to learn it in school. That requires books. So, David developed Project Appollonia.

I'm already looking at my address book for friends and former colleagues in the publishing industry.

Kola Boof Said

Sudanese born novelist, poet and freedom fighter, Kola Boof lives under government protection in the United States because of death threats made against her life by the government of Sudan and other Arab Muslim fundamentalist groups. In 2004, Ms. Boof will have three major books published in the United States and Europe, the most current one being a reissue of her classic short story collection, Long Train to the Redeeming Sin: Stories About African Women. The others are Nile River Woman, and, Flesh and the Devil: A Novel.

Sudanese American author Kola Boof gave the following speech on Israeli radio in Tel Aviv, Sunday March 28th. Ms. Boof's powerful message was broadcast throughout the entire nation of Israel.

The speech is reprinted this week in several Jewish American and Jewish European newspapers.

--Nafisa Goma
_______________________________

An Untoned-Down Commentary on Sudan by Kola Boof

[Ed. Note - Background: For many, many years, the radical Islamic government of Sudan has waged, what President George Bush called, "a brutal and shameful" war against its Christian and animist citizens in southern Sudan to force them to convert to Islam. Negotiations in 2002 in Machakos, Kenya, produced an agreement between the government and the South's Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), but the war continues. Meantimes, over two million people have died, and another four million have been displaced.]

KOLA BOOF SAID:

My dearest ones in Israel, the devil has been very busy. For no matter who risks life and limb to tell the truth about the evil injustices carried out by the Arab Muslim governments of North Africa and by the mullahs that advise these governments, the media in America has responded with a hideous prejudice against Jews, against black African Sudanese, and against any fair-thinking person who dares despise the Arab imperialism that is not only destroying the Middle East, but now threatens to destroy authentic African culture of the Nile River more than it already has.

It does not matter

that I speak as the daughter of an Arab Egyptian father, a woman born Islamic in Omdurman, Sudan, or that I am an accomplished African woman writer, obviously of some intelligence.

It does not matter

that my parents were murdered in my presence, because my Arab Muslim father spoke out against the building of Lake Nuba and the enslavement of Dinka children by Arab Northerners in Sudan.

It does not matter

that I have witnessed Muslim women rolled up in carpets and set on fire, because they failed to produce male children.

It does not matter

that I speak, most regrettably, as the former mistress of two of the Arab world's most powerful men, Hasan al Turabi and Osama Bin Laden, or that I have been a paid hostess at the parties of President Hosni Mubarak and Moamar Khadafi, or that I provided proof of this before I was profiled by Fox News, and therefore, have knowledge of their true faces.

Anyone who speaks the truth in America about the evils of the Arab world is ignored, shunned and accused of supporting the so-called Jewish desecration of the Arab birthright.

Of course, we all remember that the Black Plague was blamed on Jewish people, even in nations where there were no Jews living, and this today, is the similar anti-semitic blame game, but for being a black African woman who has said so in America, I have been written off as "crazy", "emotional", "a whore" and "a hoax".

I don't deny that I'm a controversial, provocative public figure. I reject all man-made religions, be it Christianity, Islam, the Jewish faith, Buddhism or any worship that was created by men. I am a womanist and an African mother. I bare my breasts in the river once a month and I believe in the womb.

Yet still,

I have not lied about the atrocities of the Arab world.
I have not lied about the cruel evils of Islam against African people and those who refuse to join it.

I have told these truths, not because I hate any race or religion of man, but because I believe that it's wrong for human beings to take part in any cult of hate, any orgasm of violence against other humans.

According to my Sudanese Zarpunni (the women's neighborhood) and all the black women before me, the Palestinians have sterilized black women since the 1950's.

It is well known by African women that our wombs are loathed in Arab nations, because it is our wombs that produce the authentic black man. Our tongue bequeaths him his heritage and identity.

Who on this planet will deny me this truth?

In America, I have been greatly criticized by my black American brothers and sisters for supporting Israel instead of Palestine, but as a black woman and a mother of black children, how can I support the colorstruck machinations of the Palestinians?

Unfortunately, the Americans have truly mistaken me for a witch, because the Arabs have money to get their message out and I have only my books and no money, and even then the media portrays me as an extremist and a supporter of Bush and the Conservative Republicans, which is an unmitigated lie.

I am as liberal and as Democratic as any American black, but I also know the truth about Arab Muslim societies and about the culture that creates terrorism.

The Black Americans have no knowledge of the true history that has existed more than a thousand years between the Arab Muslim invaders and the authentic African people. The powerful light skinned Black American even looks more like the dark skinned Arab than like the authentic charcoal African, so they are often weak to the propaganda of false Islamic organizations in America. Organizations that spread the lie

that Islam is an African religion
and that the Arab man is our brother,
the Israeli our enemy because of whiteness. They feel no bond with Israel.

But for the sake of my own nation, the Sudan, I am committed to changing that. I feel very strongly that Israel and New Sudan should form an alliance against the Arab world.

Obviously, I am in disagreement with my beloved hero, Dr. John Garang, but I truly believe that the peace talks in Machakos will produce nothing but dust, riches for the sellouts, and eventually, more Arab Muslim racism, more exploitation of blacks by the Oil companies, more black slaves for the kitchens of Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Because I am a woman and because the men love money more than they love justice, I am given a kiss on the hand and not taken seriously. I am even denied my place of honor in the organization's struggle to free Sudan. My black brothers of Sudan are very sexist and have called me Queen, but then expected the Queen to lay on her back and be a mere follower. In time, of course, they will regret this, because I am a very intelligent, impassioned person. I say now to anyone that will listen - and I don't say it for tired old men, I say it for future generations - that the Arab Muslim government in Sudan must be overthrown.

There is no other way.

It is impossible to have true peace and solidarity with the people who have called you "abeed" for a thousand years, stolen and sold your children into slavery, raped your mothers and killed your fathers, over taxed you, stolen your land from you and subjected you to racial profiling.

It is not in the hearts of the blacks to go on being ruled and humiliated by the Arabs.

And because my people have named me "Queen Kola", and because I have not yet lived up to that title, I feel that I must denounce the money offered in the Kenya peace talks and instead uphold the wishes of the people's hearts:

that we be liberated at last from racial, religious and economic dehumanization and oppression.

It's no secret that the freedom fighters of Southern Sudan have received guns and ammunition from Israel. Truly, your loyalty to the Goddess Sudan has been flawless, and I submit, sincerely, that I love you for loving my people. I stand by Israel, not only because Israel has stood by me, but because the Palestinians have defiled me.

I truly pray that someday, there will be peace, love and brotherhood between all mankind. The Arab, the African, the European, the Jew, the Asian and all others, I pray, will someday stand as one, but at this moment in time I am very sad to report that the Arab world is not our friend, and that we must recognize this or perish. I submit that both Israel and New Sudan must stop at nothing to prevail against the evil forces that choke them with malice and threaten their very existence. For if the Arabs were to lay down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. But if we of Israel and Sudan were to lay down our weapons today, we would be dead, and the whole world would be witness to yet another genocide.

War is hell, my beloveds. But so is love. And sometimes, kicking a man's ass is the only love he will accept.

Let us stand against the Arab world, as David slew Goliath. This is not what we wanted, it's what they wanted. And our children deserve our protection.

In the words of the ancient Nubians, "So let it be written, so let it be done."

Tima usrah! (through fire comes the family)

Sudanese born novelist, poet and freedom fighter, Kola Boof lives under government protection in the United States because of death threats made against her life by the government of Sudan and other Arab Muslim fundamentalist groups. In 2004, Ms. Boof will have three major books published in the United States and Europe, the most current one being a reissue of her classic short story collection, Long Train to the Redeeming Sin: Stories About African Women. The others are Nile River Woman, and, Flesh and the Devil: A Novel.

They'll Go There

VIA Mathew Gross, Wonkette reports what I read yesterday on a list-serv for LGBT POC:

Richard Clarke: Don't Go There

We have it on semi-reliable authority that the Bush administration's next attempt to discount Richard Clarke's credibility will consist of alleging that he's a big gay. We have a little trouble figuring out how being gay makes you unable to assess threats to a country's national security -- after all, we trust them to tell us what to wear. Still, it is a great strategy.

That is, as long as you don't believe there [are] any other homosexuals on the Bush national security team.I hope Gross is right and BushCo keeps its sniping at a minimum.

A fatherless, unmarried bureaucrat who quotes Dante? Clearly we know which team he's batting for. But I suspect that any attempts to push the issue by the Bush administration will backfire. They've shown the American people in the past ten days how vicious they can be; they won't improve their case by grasping at the irrelevant, especially if it's done in a transparent manner. {emphasis mine}

Then again, I don't put it past the repugnants to fuck up royally.

Posted by ronn at 09:38 PM