Charles Ramsey, who helped rescue three women in Cleveland who had been missing for a decade, has become an internet sensation, causing many to critique the public’s reaction to Ramsey. (Google Images)
Aisha Harris, writing for Slate, discusses the implications of the rise of Charles Ramsey, the man who aided in the rescue of three women who were missing and presumed to be dead for the past ten years, as an internet meme. The entertainment people find in his interviews, casting him as the “hilarious black neighbor,” detracts from the importance of his role in rescuing the three women, she says.
Harris writes:
Ramsey has become the latest in a fairly recent trend of “hilarious” black neighbors, unwitting Internet celebrities whose appeal seems rooted in a “colorful” style that is always immediately recognizable as poor or working-class.
Grammy award-winning singer Lauryn Hill was sentenced to 3 months in prison for income tax evasion. (Google Images)
Nardine Saad of The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Grammy award-winning singer Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to three months in prison for tax evasion. The sentence, which will be followed by three months of house arrest and an additional nine months of supervised release, will begin on July 8.
Saad writes:
Hill, 37, pleaded guilty last summer to three misdemeanor counts of tax evasion, admitting that she intentionally failed to file tax returns in 2005, 2006 and 2007. She faced a potential prison sentence of one year for each of the three counts, but her attorney sought probation in the case.
Though Hill pleaded guilty for the time period between 2005 to 2007 when she is said to have earned about $1.8 million, her sentence also took into account additional income and tax losses for 2008 and 2009 and an outstanding tax liability to the state of New Jersey, for a total income of about $2.3 million and a total tax loss of about $1,006,517, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Somali dance band Dur-Dur Band re-released their 80s album. (Google Images)
Members of the Somali 80’s dance band Dur-Dur Band, now living in Columbus, Ohio, recently agreed to an interview at a local radio station for broadcast on NPR’s All Things Considered. Abdinur Daljir and Sahra Daw explained, through an interpreter, the success of their music that juxtaposed Western funk and soul with Somali favorites.
NPR writes:
“In the beginning, we used to sing and dance with American music,” Dawo tells host Kelly McEvers. “And later on, we decided to shape our own music in such a way that it is comfortable enough for people to dance with it — for people to enjoy it.”
Read more and listen to musical selections and the entire interview at NPR Music.
This news brief was written by Kaitlin Higgins, editorial assistant for The Burton Wire.
“Your masters who lived in opulence, kept you to hard work by some contemptible being called overseer-who chastised and beat you whenever he pleased-while your master lived in some Northern town or in Europe to squander away the wealth only you acquired for him. He never earned a single Dollar in his life. You men and women, every one of you around me, made thousands and thousands of dollars for your master. Only you were the means for your masters to lead the ideal and inglorious life, and to give his children the education, which he denied to you, for fear you may awake to conscience.”
Martin Robinson Delany
On May 6, 1812, Martin Robinson Delany, abolitionist and the first African American field officer in the United States Army, was born in Charles Town, West Virginia. Because it was illegal to teach black people to read or write, he and his siblings taught themselves. In 1835, Delany became more actively involved in political matters and attended his first Negro Conference. In 1843, he began publishing The Mystery, a black-controlled newspaper, and in 1847 together with Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison began publishing the North Star newspaper.
In the 1850’s, Delany became convinced that whites would not allow deserving persons of color to become leaders in society and in his book, The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States, Politically Considered (1852), he argued that blacks had no future in the United States and should leave and found a new nation elsewhere. In 1863, Delany began recruiting black men for the Union Army to fight in the Civil War, raising thousands of enlistees, and in 1865 he was commissioned as a major, becoming the first black field officer in the U.S. Army.
Following the war and the demise of the Reconstruction Period, Delany helped form the Liberia Exodus Joint Stock Steamship Company with the intent to immigrate to Africa. However, he had to withdraw from the project due to family obligations. Delany died January 24, 1885 and his biography, Martin R. Delany: The Beginnings of Black Nationalism, was published in 1971.
The Akosua Report: Facts on The African Diaspora, is written by Akosua Lowery. Follow her on Twitter @AkosuaLowery.
“I’ve outdone anyone you can name – Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.”
James Brown
On May 3, 1933, James Joseph Brown, Jr., singer, songwriter, and “The Godfather of Soul,” was born in Branwell, South Carolina. Brown dropped out of school in the seventh grade and earned money shining shoes and through other odd jobs. In 1955, he joined The Flames, and their first recording, “Please, Please, Please” (1956), sold more than a million copies. Brown returned to the charts in 1958 with “Try Me,” the best selling R&B single of the year and the first of 17 number one R&B singles by Brown over the next two decades.
While successful in the R&B world, Brown was not known nationally until the release of his self-financed 1963 album “Live at the Apollo.” Because his record company refused to promote his records beyond the “black” market, Brown co-founded his own production company to promote his records to white audiences. As a result, in 1965 “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” which won the Grammy Award for Best Rhythm and Blues Recording, and “I Got You (I Feel Good)” were his first Top 10 pop hits. Other hits by Brown include “Cold Sweat” (1967), “Get Up (I Feel Like Being A Sex Machine)” (1970), “Get Up Offa That Thing” (1976), and “Living in America” (1985) which won the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was known for his social activism, recording songs such as “Don’t Be a Drop-Out” (1966) and “Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1968), and performing benefit concerts for various civil rights organizations. His 1968 performance in front of a televised audience in Boston the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. is documented in the PBS film “The Night James Brown Saved Boston.” Brown received a number of awards and honors, including being one of the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992, the Rhythm and Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993, Kennedy Center Honors in 2003, and induction into the United Kingdom Music Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2005, the city of Augusta, Georgia unveiled a life-sized bronze statue of Brown. Brown died December 25, 2006 and is recognized as one of the most influential figures in 20th century popular music. Brown published his autobiography, “The Godfather of Soul,” in 1990.
The Akosua Report: Facts on The African Diaspora, is written by Akosua Lowery. Follow her on Twitter @AkosuaLowery.
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras campus President Ana Guadalupe has resigned. (Google Images)
The Associated Press is reporting that Ana Guadalupe, president of the University of Puerto Rico has resigned. Guadalupe is the eleventh university president in the university system to resign since Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla revamped the university’s board to create new positions and reduce the amount of time members serve. Padilla also recently signed a law to eliminate an $800 tuition hike that sparked violent protests in 2011 and led to a drop in enrollment.
A new board president was appointed Thursday, and an interim president has been chosen to oversee the island’s largest public university, which includes the campus Guadalupe oversaw.
Grammy Award-nominated go-to sound engineer Gimel ‘Young Guru’ Keaton who has worked with artists like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jack White, Little Brother, Alicia Keys and T.I. takes a photo with GrammyU participants. (PHOTO: DJ Blak Magic)
The digital age has led many people to think it only takes a MacBook and GarageBand to make quality sound recordings.
Young Guru says there’s more to it. “You need to know how to run equipment. Be interested or curious about it. People go to school to learn equalizers and compressors, but when they first get in the session, someone has to actually teach them how to run a session.”
The laid back and extremely cordial 39-year-old born Gimel Keaton in Wilmington, DE talks about Bob Power, Tony Maserati and Dr. Dre as his inspiration. Each session, he says, should stimulate an engineer’s recording techniques.
“By working with a huge gambit of people, it makes your skills that much bigger. It’s about adding on to a legacy of music that preserves the culture and advances it. Preservation doesn’t mean make it stagnant,” Guru says.
The Howard University alumnus, who saw classmates like Digable Planets and Sean “Diddy” Combs on campus, became tour DJ for female hip hop artist Nonchalant in 1996. Investing his own money and time into sharpening his skills at Omega Recording Studios, Guru believes an engineer’s main priority is to demonstrate strong social skills.
“With any artist [not just Jay-Z], I try to help them facilitate being the best them. I analyze the artist where they are in their career at a given time. I see what I think would be necessary to help that artist propel themselves into the marketplace. You won’t get to showcase your technical expertise if you can’t communicate.” Guru says.
He especially points out offering constructive criticism. “There is a huge amount of the music business that is ethics: what your morals are, how far you will go and what you consider right or wrong. People have different learning styles and different goals. You figure out where people want to go and add onto who that person is,” he says.
Engineers, like Young Guru, progress culture. On his last trip to Atlanta in March, he hosted a workshop with Georgia Tech’s EarSketch program, which teaches writing computer code for creating remixes. He offers a scholarship through his foundation to a student pursuing sound production at SAE Institute in Capetown.
The technical maestro is also penning a virtual eBook on demonstrating audio production techniques and releasing a line of headphones, AIAIAI TMA-1, that brings the full studio experience.
Those aspiring careers in music, Guru says, should constantly evolve and challenge their skills. Point well taken considering the former student-athlete turned down 50 scholarships offered to him.
“Free your mind. Think about things in a way that you’ve never thought about them before. It sometimes gets you in trouble with popular culture, but it will inevitably write you into history,” he says.
This post was written by Christopher A. Daniel, pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine. Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter.
Grammy Award-nominated go-to sound engineer Gimel ‘Young Guru’ Keaton who has worked with artists like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jack White, Little Brother, Alicia Keys and T.I. takes a photo with GrammyU participants. (PHOTO: DJ Blak Magic)
The digital age has led many people to think it only takes a MacBook and GarageBand to make quality sound recordings.
Young Guru says there’s more to it. “You need to know how to run equipment. Be interested or curious about it. People go to school to learn equalizers and compressors, but when they first get in the session, someone has to actually teach them how to run a session.”
The laid back and extremely cordial 39-year-old born Gimel Keaton in Wilmington, DE talks about Bob Power, Tony Maserati and Dr. Dre as his inspiration. Each session, he says, should stimulate an engineer’s recording techniques.
“By working with a huge gambit of people, it makes your skills that much bigger. It’s about adding on to a legacy of music that preserves the culture and advances it. Preservation doesn’t mean make it stagnant,” Guru says.
The Howard University alumnus, who saw classmates like Digable Planets and Sean “Diddy” Combs on campus, became tour DJ for female hip hop artist Nonchalant in 1996. Investing his own money and time into sharpening his skills at Omega Recording Studios, Guru believes an engineer’s main priority is to demonstrate strong social skills.
“With any artist [not just Jay-Z], I try to help them facilitate being the best them. I analyze the artist where they are in their career at a given time. I see what I think would be necessary to help that artist propel themselves into the marketplace. You won’t get to showcase your technical expertise if you can’t communicate.” Guru says.
He especially points out offering constructive criticism. “There is a huge amount of the music business that is ethics: what your morals are, how far you will go and what you consider right or wrong. People have different learning styles and different goals. You figure out where people want to go and add onto who that person is,” he says.
Engineers, like Young Guru, progress culture. On his last trip to Atlanta in March, he hosted a workshop with Georgia Tech’s EarSketch program, which teaches writing computer code for creating remixes. He offers a scholarship through his foundation to a student pursuing sound production at SAE Institute in Capetown.
The technical maestro is also penning a virtual eBook on demonstrating audio production techniques and releasing a line of headphones, AIAIAI TMA-1, that brings the full studio experience.
Those aspiring careers in music, Guru says, should constantly evolve and challenge their skills. Point well taken considering the former student-athlete turned down 50 scholarships offered to him.
“Free your mind. Think about things in a way that you’ve never thought about them before. It sometimes gets you in trouble with popular culture, but it will inevitably write you into history,” he says.
This post was written by Christopher A. Daniel, pop cultural critic and music editor for The Burton Wire. He is also a contributing writer for Urban Lux Magazine and Blues & Soul Magazine. Follow Christopher @Journalistorian on Twitter.
“Spanking” children has been a topic of discussion in the world community, especially when it comes to the use of what is often called “corporal punishment” when disciplining children. The recent case of Greg Horn, an Ohio father who beat his two daughters with a cable for posting a video of themselves “Twerking” on Facebook was recently arrested and charged for child endangerment and corporal punishment after he posted a video of him beating the girls on Facebook that went viral. There are many who argue for or against spanking children however it can still be seen as child endangerment and a form of child abuse which is a crime if you find yourself in trouble for child endangerment or child abuse you might be interested in someone like this philadelphia criminal lawyer who might be able to help fight your case. Author Asadah Kirkland, who examines this practice in her book Beating Black Kids, wrote a post for The Burton Wire discussing the problem with beating kids. Check out what she has to say below:
Ohio father Greg Horn,35, was arrested and charged with child endangerment and corporal punishment after posting a video of beating his daughter with a cable after they posted a video of themselves “twerking” on Facebook. (Google Images)
“I got spanked and I turned out fine.” Fine? As in okay? Is “fine” what we are aiming for as a people? I am beginning to believe “fine” is as far as we can socially reach. Black people often say this phrase as a rebuttal and excuse for using physical violence against our children. It is supposed to lessen severity. We say it to diverge from looking at how whipping our children breaks their spirits. Take a look around and witness the condition of our communities. Looking excellent or just okay? For a race of people who have generational bootstraps to pick up, “fine” is unsatisfactory.
We got beatings and turned out fine? Well we are products of lynchings too and are still here. What does that mean? Yes, we know how to endure violence, but are we better because of it? No we are not. Turning out fine has morphed into sagging pants, psychotic breaks of irrationality where we beat our children, film it, and put it online. Turning out fine has yielded absentee fathers, rampant molestation and relationship disintegration within our families. “I ain’t negotiating with no child!” Hmmm…no lessons of negotiation, huh? Yes. I see. And our children have no clue of how to negotiate their salaries. One more march for higher minimum wage.
Holding one’s position in the Black community, against spanking our children, can feel like a trying and disheartening position to have. We easily protest 400 years of slavery, segregation, police brutality, racism and countless other injustices done to our people. But when it comes to hitting our children…there are no rules and inflicting pain on them is our God-given right. It is how we “teach” them. We beat understanding into them and they better respect us when we are done. “We hit them because we love them,” is what I’ve been told. This distorted concept of loving and protecting our children by inflicting pain on them, has been hindering our progress and cultivating relationships that hurt instead of heal. I liken F.I.N.E. to Failing Indefinitely Never Emerging. We need help!
So what do we do? Find ways to have our children turn out better than “fine.” What can we do to build them up so they actually WANT to be excellent? BE EXCELLENT OURSELVES. If they are to run their world, we have to arm them with the skills to do so. We must raise our skills and not our hands to discipline them. Feed them pleasing memories. Flow them power. Breathe life into them and show them love. Not the “love” that demonstrates how you can provide as a parent. That comes with the territory. Give the kind of love that feels good and coats their memories with admiration and respect for you. A society built on these intentions will prosper.
This post was written by ASADAH KIRKLAND, who is the author of “Beating Black Kids” and facilitator of “Raising Our Skills, and Not Our Hands” workshops. You can find out more about her book on Facebook and Twitter @asadahk.
The FBI placed Assata Shakur on their Most-Wanted Terrorist list for terror against the United States and continuing to advocate resistance. (Google Images)
RJ Cubarrubia of Rolling Stone is reporting that the FBI has placed Joanne Chesimard, known as Assata Shakur, godmother of Tupac Shakur, on their Most-Wanted Terrorist list. Shakur is the first woman, and only the second domestic terrorist, to be added to the list. The FBI cited “supreme terror against the government” as reasoning for this classification.
Cubarrubia writes:
[Shakur] was convicted in 1977 of the murder of 34-year-old state trooper Werner Foerster on the New Jersey Turnpike. After her conviction, she escaped prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba.
…
“She’s a danger to the American government,” said Aaron T. Ford, agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Newark division, according to The New York Times. Chesimard was a member of the Black Panther Party, which was monitored by the FBI with both legal and illegal surveillance in the Sixties and Seventies.
“Your masters who lived in opulence, kept you to hard work by some contemptible being called overseer-who chastised and beat you whenever he pleased-while your master lived in some Northern town or in Europe to squander away the wealth only you acquired for him. He never earned a single Dollar in his life. You men and women, every one of you around me, made thousands and thousands of dollars for your master. Only you were the means for your masters to lead the ideal and inglorious life, and to give his children the education, which he denied to you, for fear you may awake to conscience.”
“I’ve outdone anyone you can name – Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Strauss. Irving Berlin, he wrote 1,001 tunes. I wrote 5,500.”
