U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg in the Oval Office.
(Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Norway Prime Minister Erna Solberg in the Oval Office. (Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
Caribbean 360 is reporting United States President Donald Trump has been declared “persona non grata” by Pan-Africanists and socialists in response to comments made by Trump about Haiti and El Salvador. The author reports:
“In a strongly worded declaration issued on behalf of the people of the Caribbean over the weekend, the groups said Trump is not welcomed in the region.
‘We, the undersigned representatives of the sovereign people of the Caribbean, hereby declare that president Donald Trump of the United States of America is persona non grata in our Caribbean region,’ stated the declaration prepared by ‘Pan-Africanist and socialist popular forces of Barbados’ and endorsed by scores of organizations from across the region.
‘We further declare that as a persona non grata, President Donald Trump is not welcome in any territory of the Caribbean; and we hereby confirm that we – the Caribbean people – will petition our governments, vehemently protest against any Trump visit, and engage in popular demonstrations designed to prevent President Donald Trump’s entry into any portion of the sovereign territory of our Caribbean region.’”
U.S. President Trump reportedly referred to the Caribbean nations and African nations as “shithole countries” during a meeting on immigration quipping the U.S. should seek out immigrants from Norway.
This video examines Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s last speech in which he talks about having been stabbed and learning had he sneezed, the tip of the knife which was near his aorta, would have killed him and he would have bled to death. He talks about all that he accomplished in what would be his final speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” Dr. King spoke on April 3, 1968, at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. He was assassinated the next day (April 4) while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis. Listen to a part of this famous speech that teaches us more about the man who changed the world.
TBW Editor-in-Chief Dr. Nsenga Burton (r) talks MLK legacy with Dr. Joycelyn Wilson (middle), host Rose Scott (l) and Ryan Roemerman (not pictured). (Photo: TBW)
Dr. Burton, Dr. Wilson, Rose Scott and Ryan Roemerman (not pictured) at WABE. (Photo: TBW)
The Burton Wire‘s founder & editor-in-chief Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. appeared today on WABE 90.1 FM’s “Closer Look with Rose Scott,” to discuss the impact of Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy on today’s issues. Joining Dr. Burton for the discussion with Scott was Dr. Joycelyn Wilson, Visiting Professor of Literature, Media and Communication at Georgia Tech and Ryan Roemerman, Executive Director of the LGBT Institute of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Additional guests for the day, which also marked 50 years since the assassination of Dr. King included Professor IIlya Davis, Professor of Philosophy and African American studies at Morehouse College and Doug Shipman, Kingian scholar and President and CEO of the Woodruff Arts Center.
Marlene Cummings #meetoo story of rape while being a member of the Australian Black Panther Party is explored in AfroPop's 10th season premiere. (Photo: Courtesy of AfroPop)
‘AFROPOP’ OPENS WITH ‘BLACK PANTHER WOMAN’ ON MLK DAY
Queen Sugar’s Nicholas L. Ashe (Photo: Courtesy of AfroPop)
The 10th anniversary season of the documentary series AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange opens with Rachel Perkins’ Black Panther Woman, a look back at the Black Panther Party in Australia, and a legacy tarnished by #MeToo charges from one of the women involved in that movement. AfroPoP X is hosted by actor Nicholas L. Ashe, who stars in the hit OWN TV series Queen Sugar. AfroPoP, the nation’s only public television series of contemporary stories about Black life, art and culture around the globe, premieres on WORLD Channel at 8 p.m. ET (10 p.m. PT) on Monday, January 15 — Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The show is produced by Black Public Media (formerly known as National Black Programming Consortium) and co-presented by distributor American Public Television (APT).
The film chronicles the life of Marlene Cummins, who was an uneducated teenager in 1972 when she became involved with Australia’s Black Panther Party, joining with nine other young Aboriginal people in the Black Power struggle inspired by the American Black Panther party. Over the course of a year, the group led protests and community programs and she began a relationship with the head of the chapter. But internal and external struggles arose, devastating her. To protect the movement, she remained silent for more than four decades about her own #MeToo moment, the rape she suffered at the hands of two indigenous leaders. In Black Panther Woman, she opens up about the abuse and the addiction that followed. Cummins also travels to the United States for an international gathering of Black Panthers, reflecting on the global struggle. The film took the Jury Special Prize at the 2015 Festival du Film Océanien (FIFO) and the International Indigenous Award at the 2015 Wairoa Maori Film Festival.
“Marlene’s courage and commitment to making a difference in her community despite the abuse she suffered is an all-too-familiar story of women globally,” said BPM Director of Programs and Acquisitions and AfroPoP Executive Producer Kay Shaw. “We are so fortunate that she consented to tell her story with such honesty. As her openness is helping her recovery, we hope it will help other women confront their pain to begin their own healing.”
Marlene Cummings #meetoo story of rape while being a member of the Australian Black Panther Party is explored in AfroPop’s 10th season premiere. (Photo: Courtesy of AfroPop)
The five-week series continues with Marco Williams’ Lonnie Holley: The Truth of the Dirt, Michael Fequiere’s Kojo and Jessica Beshir’s He Who Dances on Wood (January 22); Between 2 Shores (January 29), Mariette Monpierre’s gripping documentary about two Dominican women fighting to bring their children with them to their new lives in Guadeloupe, highlights a struggle faced by many immigrants today: family reunification; Ten Days in Africa (February 5), Regi Allen’s humorous and insightful look at his trip to West Africa to explore the differences and similarities between Africans and African-Americans, a special encore broadcast from the first year of AfroPoP ; and Fatal Assistance (February 12), award-winning filmmaker Raoul Peck’s scathing indictment of global aid policies that failed Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating 2010 earthquake’s aftermath. Peck was a recent Oscar nominee for I Am Not Your Negro, which was funded in part by BPM.
New episodes of the series will air weekly through February 12, with APT releasing the program to public television stations across the U.S. in February 2018. Films will also be streamed the day after their broadcast premiere on all station-branded PBS platforms, including worldchannel.org, PBS.org, and on PBS apps for iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.
AfroPoP is produced by Angela Tucker and directed by Duana Butler with the generous support of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Arts.
CNN is reporting embattled Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe,93, has stepped down. After 37 years as “autocratic” leader of Zimbabwe, Mugabe conceded to the demands of a military takeover that he step down.
CNN’s Davic McKenzie, Angela Dewan and Brent Swails wrote:
“As the Speaker read out a letter from Mugabe, lawmakers broke out in thunderous applause and cheers. In the streets outside, crowds erupted in rapturous celebrations, dancing and cheering in joy some raising their fists and waving Zimbabwean flags.”
In his resignation letter, Mugabe insisted that his resignation was voluntary.
Selena Hill of Black Enterprise is reporting seven black candidates made history in the 2017 November elections. The Burton Wire offers a few of the highlights:
Photo: Vi Lyles.com
Vi Lyles: Elected Charlotte’s First Black Woman Mayor Public servant and all around lovely person Vi Lyles, became the first African-American woman elected as mayor the Queen City of Charlotte, NC. This win is especially gratifying considering she now holds the office formerly held by North Carolina’s dethroned, acrimonious uber conservative and now former Governor Pat McCrory. We know he’s sitting somewhere sulking which adds to the celebratory nature of Lyles’ much deserved historic win.
Photo: Andreajenkinsforward8.org
Andrea Jenkins: First Black Transgender Woman Elected to Office Meet the “trans-identified woman” who won 73% of Minneapolis’ eighth ward and beat the brakes off of three other candidates in the process. She joins Danica Roem, the first openly trans-identified woman to serve in a state legislature. Roem defeated incumbent Virginia delegate Bob Marshall, the man who introduced a state bill that would allow licensed businesses to refuse services to gays. He also introduced a bill to restrict transgender people’s access to public restrooms. Can you say, “Poetic Justice?”
Justin Fairfax: Virginia Gets a Second Black Lieutenant Governor
It was 30 years in the making but Justin Fairfax, 38, was elected Lieutenant Governor continuing the legacy of L. Douglas Wilder, the Commonwealth’s first black Lieutenant Governor in 1985 and subsequently Governor in 1989. post-reconstruction. A state senator, Fairfax is poised to assume the next Governor which will allow him to make history again.
Read about more game changers in the 2017 November elections on Black Enterprise.
The candidate descriptions were written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
The National Black Programming Consortium has changed its name to Black Public Media.
(Photo Credit: Black Public Media)
The National Black Programming Consortium has changed its name to Black Public Media. (Photo Credit: Black Public Media)
NEW YORK (November 2, 2017)—The National Black Programming Consortium is Black Public Media (BPM). The 38-year-old media arts institution, the nation’s only nonprofit dedicated solely to media content about the Black experience, has changed its name and relaunched its website, blackpublicmedia.org, a resource for independent producers and filmmakers and for viewers of authentic Black media content. The moves take place as BPM expands its support for content creatives in the emerging media landscape.
Under its new moniker, BPM will continue producing and supporting media with a purpose, as it has done since its founding in 1979. The national organization has helped fund films (such as I Am Not Your Negro, Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise and Lorraine Hansberry: Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart and web series (Pops and Ask a Muslim), train producers (with its 360 Incubator + Fund) and produce content (including its signature public television program AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange, the enlightening 180 Days series and irreverent web series Black Folk Don’t) to present diverse Black narratives to the American public. It started with gaining access for filmmakers to the airwaves on public television, a central part of its mission, but the organization has also set its sights on supporting producers embracing new and emerging media.
“The ever-evolving media landscape has created a larger public media square that is still in dire need of diverse and authentic voices,” said Black Public Media’s Executive Director Leslie Fields-Cruz. “With nearly four decades of experience bringing these voices to public television, it only makes sense that we evolve accordingly and use our methodology to support program development across emerging media platforms.”
To that end and with a recent $750,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Journalism and Media program, BPM will be launching WOKE! Broadening Access to Black Public Media, a series of projects and events designed to connect creatives working with new technologies and platforms to funding, resources, partners and distribution opportunities. As a part of its efforts, BPM will be building a new funding initiative specifically for emerging media with the goal to usher forth black talent and black content into an industry that overwhelmingly lacks diversity.
The new website includes content for the general public, including short films, filmmaker chats and youth and educator discussion guides on its public television programs. Filmmakers and other content producers can sign up for the BPM Producers’ Portal to avail themselves of tools to hone their skills and polish their projects, including a series of webinars by industry leaders.
For more information on BPM, visit www.blackpublicmedia.org or follow the organization on Twitter (@BLKPublicMedia) or on Facebook.
Fresh from our, “Must Read” file, NFL player and activist Michael Bennett writes a letter detailing his encounter with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. He has hired Civil Rights attorney John Burris to explore all legal remedies regarding the incident. Read below:
Letter written and released by NFL star Michael Bennett.
Bennet and fellow Seahawks teammate Richard Sherman discuss his violent incident with LVMPD.
New York, NY (Sept 5, 2017) – New York African Restaurant Week (NYARW) will kick off its fifth annual celebration of African cuisine and culture on October 1-22, 2017, featuring a curated selection of more than 25 restaurants, world renowned chefs, and 75 events that will bring a “taste of Africa” across New York City. How times have changed since the first time this was done. Many people have compared how the restaurant management has been run recently and they can all happily say that it is a huge improvement since we started celebrating Afrcian cuisine. Many of these restaurants are now making use of high quality equipment and supplies, such as those you can find online (www.nellaonline.com), to keep up with their competitors.
The complete line-up of restaurants, chefs, and events for this year’s NYARW is available at NYARW.com with additional pop-up experiences and sweepstakes to be announced.
Launched in 2013 by Akin Akinsanya, Founder & CEO of A Taste of Africa USA, the three-week long NYARW includes restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn offering special prix-fixe menus during lunch and dinner reflecting cuisines and flavors from various parts of Africa and the African Diaspora. More than one hundred thousand restaurant patrons are expected to be taken across a “GastroAfrique Culinary Odyssey” with traditional African dishes and avant-garde “Afrofusion” menus, courtesy of restaurants and internationally acclaimed chefs. It is tremendously humbling to see ethnicity and heritage being celebrated trhough food, in an artistic manner. In fact my friend had been hoping to set up her own small japanese restaurant, hoping to create and sell the food she was brought up eating to the paying public. I will admit she was apprehensive about the money involved, but we had a look together to see where costs could be cut. We started to compare business energy plans and we were very impressed with the savings that were possible.
NYARW participating restaurants include Bar Omar, Ponty Bistro, Madiba, Queen of Sheba, Café Rue Dix, Buka, Safari, and more, collectively representing African and African-inspired cuisines from Ethiopia, Senegal, Algeria, Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco, Somalia, Andalusia, the Caribbean, and the American South.
NYARW participating chefs include Pierre Thiam, Cisse, Victor Bongo, Hamid Idrissi, Nadine Nelson, Selassie Atadika, Philipos, Serge Pambo, Charmain Sithappah, Shorne Benjamin, and other celebrated chefs within the global African Diaspora.
As a festival committed to bringing awareness to critical social issues around food security in New York City, Africa and around the world, each year NYARW also partners with community organizations aligned with the NYARW mission. During this year’s festival, each Wednesday and Thursday will be coined “Harvest Day” and “Vocal Day”, where a percentage of proceeds from prix-fixe menus will benefit City Harvest and VOCAL New York, organizations working to combat hunger and homelessness in New York City.
“Within the burgeoning NYC culinary scene, New York African Restaurant Week presents an exciting and unique opportunity to celebrate the best of African cuisine,” said Akinsanya, NYARW Founder & CEO. “The Festival targets a culturally rich and diverse audience in the City, both residents and international visitors, who have one thing in common – a love of or a curiosity for the intricacies of African food, cooking and culture.”
“New York African Restaurant Week is a celebration of African cuisine, restaurants, and chefs and a promotion of diverse voices in the global culinary movement – both celebrity and emerging,” said Tanaka Mawindi, NYARW Event Director and Head of Business Development. “It’s also a commitment to community development and social impact that transcends boundaries. We’re inviting all of NYC to be a part of that.”
Key partners for New York African Restaurant Week 2017 include the James Beard Foundation, Nando’s, Saveur, South African Tourism, South African Airways, Food-X, Food Tank, Mahir N. Nisar Law Associates, The Africa Channel, Immersion Journeys, Toast of Brooklyn, and Flatbush Fest.
Nigerian Independence Day Dinner on Sun. Oct 1 at Buka Restaurant
James Beard Dinner: Odyssey Across Africa on Sat. Oct 7 from 7 pm to 10 pm at the James Beard House – Hosted in partnership with the James Beard Foundation, critically acclaimed African chefs from New York city restaurants and worldwide will present a 8-course thrilling dinner experience. Participating chefs: Pierre Thiam, Victor Bongo, Selassie Atadika, Nadine Nelson, Serge Pambo, and Charmain Sithappah. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the James Beard events website.
African Restaurant Week Festival on Sun, Oct 8 from 12:30 pm to 7 pm at Industry City in Brooklyn -Over 30 African restaurants and food vendors, celebrity chef demos and appearances, beer and wine tastings, live DJ performances/a day party, kids’ spa zone, and 20 market vendors equals the mega-festival event of the Fall. GA and VIP packages available ranging from $15 to $80. Tickets on sale on eventbrite. One lucky festival goer will win a luxury stay and safari trip for two to Ghana.
Chef Collabo Event Series: Chef Cisse and Chef Bongo on Mon, Oct 9 from 7 pm to 9 pm at Ponty Bistro
Tokunbo Koiki: A Taste of Nigeria on Thurs, Oct 12 from 7 pm to 9 pm at Bed-Vyne
Linner is for Lovers on Sun, Oct 15 from 4 pm to 6:30 pm at Madiba Restaurant
Jollof Without Borders on Sun, Oct 15 from 4:30 pm to 7 pm at Joloff Restaurant
Food Business Pitch Competition on Fri, Oct 20 from 10 am to 2 pm at Microsoft New York
Poets Café, an on-going event series every Thursday during the Festival at select restaurants
2017 NYARW Participant Sweepstakes Include:
21 Days of Free Dinner for two
Roundtrip airfare for two to anywhere South African Airways flies
An all-inclusive luxury stay and safari trip to Ghana, courtesy of Immersion Journeys
Nando’s Peri Peri hot sauce goodie bags
For more information on NYARW, including a full list of participating restaurants, prix-fixe menus, chef bios and special events are available at nyarw.com, on Instagram @AfricanRestaurantWeek and on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/NYAfricanRestaurantWeek. Make sure you’re not missing any restaurant offers by checking out Great Eats.
Donald Trump: ‘Persona Non Grata’ in the Caribbean?
(Photo Credit: Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)
Caribbean 360 is reporting United States President Donald Trump has been declared “persona non grata” by Pan-Africanists and socialists in response to comments made by Trump about Haiti and El Salvador. The author reports:
“In a strongly worded declaration issued on behalf of the people of the Caribbean over the weekend, the groups said Trump is not welcomed in the region.
‘We, the undersigned representatives of the sovereign people of the Caribbean, hereby declare that president Donald Trump of the United States of America is persona non grata in our Caribbean region,’ stated the declaration prepared by ‘Pan-Africanist and socialist popular forces of Barbados’ and endorsed by scores of organizations from across the region.
‘We further declare that as a persona non grata, President Donald Trump is not welcome in any territory of the Caribbean; and we hereby confirm that we – the Caribbean people – will petition our governments, vehemently protest against any Trump visit, and engage in popular demonstrations designed to prevent President Donald Trump’s entry into any portion of the sovereign territory of our Caribbean region.’”
U.S. President Trump reportedly referred to the Caribbean nations and African nations as “shithole countries” during a meeting on immigration quipping the U.S. should seek out immigrants from Norway.
Read more at Caribbean 360.
Follow The Burton Wire on Twitter or Instagram @TheBurtonWire.