February 28, 2010
February 2, 2010
Miracle of the Negro Spiritual at Laney College
Laney College students, staff and community got some 'old time religion" during the February 18, 2010 World Music Series.
"The Miracle of the Negro Spiritual" presentation led by Laney College professor Lucy Kinchen and her "Lucy Kinchen Chorale" showcased not only the beauty, but the power of Black music and African ingenuity.Working without compensation in blazing hot sunlight from "can't see in the morning to can't see at night" under the atrocious conditions of slavery in North America, enslaved Africans endured the most brutal treatment known to humanity.
To this day, the Black Church has remained a cornerstone institution in the African American community, with music being a major form of expression simultaneously capturing the Black Experience while releasing the frustrations of racial discrimination.
But African American life is not just about pain and suffering, it is more so a testament to the human spirit and the tenacity of African people.
The Negro Spirituals emerged from the freedom struggle of enslaved Africans. Not only were the songs a source of inspiration and hope on plantations where slaves were overworked, and denied their basic needs, Kinchen said, but songs were later transformed into codes, or messages, to tell the enslaved how to get free.
"Things like shoes and decent clothing were basic needs that were also denied the slaves," Kinchen told the audience. "The spiritual 'Good News' says, "There are silver slippers, and long white robes in the heaven, I know."
Using a polyphonic, call-and-response hymnal, the "Good News" praised the coming chariot and the desire to not get left behind. The spirituals used biblical phrases that took on special meaning to enslaved Africans who identified with those enslaved in biblical scriptures.
Kinchen referenced freedom fighter Harriet Tubman, a formerly enslaved woman, known as "Moses," who freed hundreds of people through an informal network known as the "Underground Railroad." Tubman, also known as the "General," said she never once lost a passenger, adding, "I freed a thousand slaves and could have freed a thousand more if they only knew they were slaves."
According to Kinchen, the "Miracle" of the Negro Spiritual lies in the transformation power of the spirituals, not only as songs to endure slavery, but to fuel the escape from bondage.
"Prior to to the days of Harriet Tubman, spirituals gave the slaves the strength and the courage to endure the atrocities of their daily lives," Kinchen said. "However, the Miracle of the Negro Spiritual later becomes very clear and poignant due to the fact that these same songs became codes to aid the escape during the time of the Underground Railroad."
Kinchen cites "Steal away," "Sweet Chariot," and "Ride the Chariot" as examples of the codes shrouded in biblical references.
"[Negro Spirituals are] miraculous and I view [spirituals] as important as any other songs written," Kinchen concluded, referencing Marion Anderson, the 20th Century opera singer–who herself death discrimination–ended her performances with Negro Spirituals.
Since at least 2002, according to the Oakland Post, Kinchen has been on a mission to revive the spirituals. For more information about the World Music Series, contact the Laney College Music Department.
Video: The Black Hour.
More video: YouTube User aheyheynow
February 1, 2010
Black Hair Cosmetology Laney College
The Laney College Cosmetology Department hosted the "Hair Then and Now," a Black History Month showcase in February 2010.
Here are selected photos, courtesy of Laney Tower photographer by Lambert Li.
Captions written by former Laney Tower Editor Angelica Carapia. More event photos on TheBlackHour.com Flickr page.
Black Panthers Ericka Huggins Oakland Laney College
By Reginald James
Activist stresses human value of women, need for men to work to end sexism
Activist and former Black Panther leader Ericka Huggins addressed an overflowing African American Studies class Feb. 22 at Laney College.
As a part of campus' Black History Month program, Huggins engaged students in a discussion themed, “Women, Social Justice and Economics.” She discussed the historical dehumanization and discrimination Black women faced and how the “multi-generational trauma” of slavery has forced Black women to face dual oppression due to both race and gender.
Black women were a commodity, and “not just (their) labor, but bodies were sold,” Huggins said. “Slavery was economic leverage for everything else that happened to other people immigrating, migrating or forced to be here” in America.
This legacy of oppression has led to some women internalizing feelings of inferiority, and even self-hatred, Huggins said.
“If she’s taught she has no right to respond, she will accept it and go into a shell,” Huggins said, referring to how women react to sexism. “Rather than explode in confrontation, she will implode.
“She might begin to hate herself.”
Huggins told the story of Johnnie Tillman, an early 20th century female activist who founded the National Welfare Rights Organization in response to Black women being barred from receiving welfare. Refuting the stereotype of Black women as “welfare queens” in a “culture of poverty,” she told the story of women fighting for dignity, while seeking assistance. She called the suggestion that women would have a baby for the purpose of collecting a check, “male-thinking.”
As a single mother and member of the Black Panther Party, working 19 hour days, Huggins received welfare. She felt dehumanized, not because she received public assistance, but because her male case worker spied on her and invaded her privacy, like a slave plantation.
“During that time, I’ve never been so devalued and humiliated in my life,” Huggins explained. Even after Tillman’s struggle, “the vestiges of discriminatory policies in welfare remained.
Huggins was widowed when her husband, John Huggins, was assassinated at UCLA by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), she said. People would judge her negatively because she was a single parent, not knowing why.
Not deterred from the struggle, the former director of the Panther’s Oakland Community School is still an educator. She currently teaches Women’s Studies at Cal State East Bay and San Francisco State. However, due to budget cuts, she will not be able to teach in the fall. She encouraged students to be organized to created a world they want to live in. She asked students for suggestions on improve conditions for women in the U.S.
“We can mobilize women, joining together with men so that we can pressure the state to allocate more funds to programs we need,” Laney College student Terez McCall said.
Huggins concluded that, “If Johnnie Tillman started the National Welfare Rights Organization in a little room in a housing project in Arkansas, each of us can step up and step forward.”
“We think we can’t because we’ve been told that we’re powerless, we can do things.”
Photos courtesy of DanFigPhoto.com
This article originally appeared on TheBlackHour.com.
Activist stresses human value of women, need for men to work to end sexismActivist and former Black Panther leader Ericka Huggins addressed an overflowing African American Studies class Feb. 22 at Laney College.
As a part of campus' Black History Month program, Huggins engaged students in a discussion themed, “Women, Social Justice and Economics.” She discussed the historical dehumanization and discrimination Black women faced and how the “multi-generational trauma” of slavery has forced Black women to face dual oppression due to both race and gender.
| “If she’s taught she has no right to respond, she will accept it and go into a shell. Rather than explode in confrontation, she will implode. She might begin to hate herself." Ericka Huggins, on sexism |
This legacy of oppression has led to some women internalizing feelings of inferiority, and even self-hatred, Huggins said.
“If she’s taught she has no right to respond, she will accept it and go into a shell,” Huggins said, referring to how women react to sexism. “Rather than explode in confrontation, she will implode.
“She might begin to hate herself.”
Huggins told the story of Johnnie Tillman, an early 20th century female activist who founded the National Welfare Rights Organization in response to Black women being barred from receiving welfare. Refuting the stereotype of Black women as “welfare queens” in a “culture of poverty,” she told the story of women fighting for dignity, while seeking assistance. She called the suggestion that women would have a baby for the purpose of collecting a check, “male-thinking.”
As a single mother and member of the Black Panther Party, working 19 hour days, Huggins received welfare. She felt dehumanized, not because she received public assistance, but because her male case worker spied on her and invaded her privacy, like a slave plantation.“During that time, I’ve never been so devalued and humiliated in my life,” Huggins explained. Even after Tillman’s struggle, “the vestiges of discriminatory policies in welfare remained.
Huggins was widowed when her husband, John Huggins, was assassinated at UCLA by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), she said. People would judge her negatively because she was a single parent, not knowing why.
| "If Johnnie Tillman started the National Welfare Rights Organization in a little room in a housing project in Arkansas, each of us can step up and step forward.” Ericka Huggins |
“We can mobilize women, joining together with men so that we can pressure the state to allocate more funds to programs we need,” Laney College student Terez McCall said.
Huggins concluded that, “If Johnnie Tillman started the National Welfare Rights Organization in a little room in a housing project in Arkansas, each of us can step up and step forward.”
“We think we can’t because we’ve been told that we’re powerless, we can do things.”
Photos courtesy of DanFigPhoto.com
This article originally appeared on TheBlackHour.com.
Tim Wise: Racism still plagues America
Even with the election of President Barack Obama, America is still plagued by racism, according to author and activist Tim Wise.
About 150 people packed Laney College's Room D-200 Wednesday, Feb. 3 to hear the Black History Month lecture based on Wise’s most recent book, “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.”
Wise -- who is white -- said the recent economic downturn, fear over health care reform, the changing demographics of America, and the election of the first African American president in the U.S. has caused great anxiety for white people in America. The rise of the “Tea Party” demonstrations and much of the backlash against the Obama administration is due to a perceived loss of “white privilege.”
"For the first time you actually have to realize that America’s not just about white folks,” Wise said, referring to the luxury of America being seen as a nation for white people. “When all of a sudden that changes, an awful lot of people aren’t ready.”
“All of a sudden you have a white America” no longer “totally convinced that everything’s going to be okay. He added that the economic collapse has caused many white people to feel as if they are “losing” the country and wanting “their” country back. “They’re talking about going back to the day when they were the norm. They could take it for granted that they were the norm.”
He added that it could make it difficult for white people to discuss race or racial inequality when they have their own problems to deal with. Wise suggests this is the time when people of all races should unite to solve the country’s collective problems, but it isn’t happening.
The election of the first Black president has lead to increased “rhetoric of racial transcendence,” Wise said, even though the majority of white people did not vote for Obama. He said that Obama has avoided discussing race unless he is forced to, and gave the example of Obama’s campaign speech on race when he was forced to distance himself from his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Ironically, “the very thing that allowed him to win was the idea that he’s different,” from other Black people, Wise said. “Yet, it’s the very thing that now makes it impossible for him to respond to even the overtly racist stuff that gets thrown at him.”
“It was President Obama who implanted this notion in the minds of the American public,” Wise said, referring to Mr. Obama’s 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention that put him on the national scene.
In that speech, Obama said, “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”
Mr. Obama never mentioned race during his first State of the Union address, Wise said. Wise referred to MSNBC host Chris Matthews’ recent remark about Obama being “post-racial.”
"I forgot that he was black for a whole hour," Matthews said. Wise said that Obama probably didn’t forget he was black, but Matthews’ comment is evidence of inherent white privilege and negative connotations of black people.
The statement implies that Black people can only specialize in “black issues” and are incapable of being leaders of all people, Wise said.
"It’s a damned good thing I forgot" Obama was black, and “if I remembered I wouldn’t have been able to listen,” Wise said the remark implied. “Somehow there is something wrong with blackness that needs to be forgotten.
“Only white people have been able to erase our racial identity and act like it doesn’t matter, and forget that we’re white.
“Whenever you’re a member of a dominant group,” Wise said, “you have that luxury; the problem is when you project that luxury onto others who don’t have it.”
The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer period.
Responding to a question about the rise of hate groups following Obama’s election, Wise said “People of color are far more at risk of people not necessarily in hate groups.” Wise referring to police officers and loan officers who may be or may not be racist, but work in racist institutions. “Oscar Grant wasn’t a killed by a Klansmen,” he said.
When asked about the use of the “N-Word,” Wise stated that it was a “Black conversation” that did not need to involved white people in the decision.
His advice on confronting subtle or subconscious racism was critical confrontation. He said some whites may not be conscious of their racism, but by asking questions or critiquing racist remarks or statements, you can encourage people–who are not overtly or intentionally racist, to improve.
“You don’t want to just jump on them, you want them to think.”
Photos: Reginald James/ TheBlackHour.com
This article original appeared on TheBlackHour.com.
About 150 people packed Laney College's Room D-200 Wednesday, Feb. 3 to hear the Black History Month lecture based on Wise’s most recent book, “Between Barack and a Hard Place: Racism and White Denial in the Age of Obama.”
Wise -- who is white -- said the recent economic downturn, fear over health care reform, the changing demographics of America, and the election of the first African American president in the U.S. has caused great anxiety for white people in America. The rise of the “Tea Party” demonstrations and much of the backlash against the Obama administration is due to a perceived loss of “white privilege.”
'For the first time you actually have to realize that America’s not just about white folks.'
Tim Wise
"For the first time you actually have to realize that America’s not just about white folks,” Wise said, referring to the luxury of America being seen as a nation for white people. “When all of a sudden that changes, an awful lot of people aren’t ready.”
“All of a sudden you have a white America” no longer “totally convinced that everything’s going to be okay. He added that the economic collapse has caused many white people to feel as if they are “losing” the country and wanting “their” country back. “They’re talking about going back to the day when they were the norm. They could take it for granted that they were the norm.”
He added that it could make it difficult for white people to discuss race or racial inequality when they have their own problems to deal with. Wise suggests this is the time when people of all races should unite to solve the country’s collective problems, but it isn’t happening.
The election of the first Black president has lead to increased “rhetoric of racial transcendence,” Wise said, even though the majority of white people did not vote for Obama. He said that Obama has avoided discussing race unless he is forced to, and gave the example of Obama’s campaign speech on race when he was forced to distance himself from his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Ironically, “the very thing that allowed him to win was the idea that he’s different,” from other Black people, Wise said. “Yet, it’s the very thing that now makes it impossible for him to respond to even the overtly racist stuff that gets thrown at him.”
“It was President Obama who implanted this notion in the minds of the American public,” Wise said, referring to Mr. Obama’s 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention that put him on the national scene.
In that speech, Obama said, “There’s not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America; there’s the United States of America.”
Mr. Obama never mentioned race during his first State of the Union address, Wise said. Wise referred to MSNBC host Chris Matthews’ recent remark about Obama being “post-racial.”
'Only white people have been able to erase our racial identity and act like it doesn’t matter, and forget that we’re white. Whenever you’re a member of a dominant group, you have that luxury; the problem is when you project that luxury onto others who don’t have it.'
Tim Wise
"I forgot that he was black for a whole hour," Matthews said. Wise said that Obama probably didn’t forget he was black, but Matthews’ comment is evidence of inherent white privilege and negative connotations of black people.
The statement implies that Black people can only specialize in “black issues” and are incapable of being leaders of all people, Wise said.
"It’s a damned good thing I forgot" Obama was black, and “if I remembered I wouldn’t have been able to listen,” Wise said the remark implied. “Somehow there is something wrong with blackness that needs to be forgotten.
“Only white people have been able to erase our racial identity and act like it doesn’t matter, and forget that we’re white.
“Whenever you’re a member of a dominant group,” Wise said, “you have that luxury; the problem is when you project that luxury onto others who don’t have it.”
The lecture was followed by a question-and-answer period.
Responding to a question about the rise of hate groups following Obama’s election, Wise said “People of color are far more at risk of people not necessarily in hate groups.” Wise referring to police officers and loan officers who may be or may not be racist, but work in racist institutions. “Oscar Grant wasn’t a killed by a Klansmen,” he said.
When asked about the use of the “N-Word,” Wise stated that it was a “Black conversation” that did not need to involved white people in the decision.
His advice on confronting subtle or subconscious racism was critical confrontation. He said some whites may not be conscious of their racism, but by asking questions or critiquing racist remarks or statements, you can encourage people–who are not overtly or intentionally racist, to improve.
“You don’t want to just jump on them, you want them to think.”
Photos: Reginald James/ TheBlackHour.com
This article original appeared on TheBlackHour.com.
Black History Month Laney College Oakland
Laney College kicked off Black History Month February 1 on the main quad.
Photo: TheBlackHour.com
The event began with a Lift E’ry Voice and Sing – the Black National Anthem – performed members of the Laney Black Student Union. The quad was decorated with red, black and green balloons.
African American Studies professor Tamika Brown, chair of the Ethnic Studies department, discussed the 2010 Black History Month theme, “The History of Black Economic Empowerment.” She said the theme is significant today, and to upcoming campus events.
“We’ll have people talking about Green Jobs and how Black people fit into that new economy,” Brown said, “as well as how the economy is affecting Black men.”
In some urban areas, the unemployment rate is as high as 50 percent, according to Brown.
“We’ll also discuss racism in society. Does it still exist post-Obama?” Brown asked.
Faculty Senate President Dr. Karolyn Van Puten said that Black History Month speaks to the “peculiar history” of the United States and the need for people of African Descent to “reclaim our identity from what was trashed,” referring to enslavement.
“Take this opportunity to expand beyond this black skin,” Van Puten said. She added that Black History Month is relevant to all people, not just African Americans.
Acting College President Dr. Elnora Webb spoke of the crippling affect slavery and racism has had on the psychology of African Americans, and the need to find value in all people.
“It’s important to know who we are and why we feel how we feel,” Webb said. “It’s important because the way we feel about ourselves has an impact on how we treat ourselves and other folks.”
Webb added that many of the behaviors have been passed down from slavery, generation to generation, but African people have a history beyond slavery.
“Slavery is just a recent part of our history,” Webb said. “We need to understand history to understand who we are as a complete people.”
Laney BSU spokesman Ray Henderson encouraged students to be active in the fight against budget cuts.
“We are fighting for our education,” Henderson said, and to “get people off the streets so they can learn.”
Laney BSU members then showcased some of their musical talents, rapping and reciting poetry.
Scholar Carter G. Woodson originally started Black History Month in 1926. It began as Negro History Week, but later became Black History Month. Woodson selected the month of February because it was the month both abolitionist Frederick Douglas and President Abraham Lincoln were born.
February 1 was the 50th anniversary of The Greensboro Four sit-in. The demonstration ushered in a new era or youth-led direct action tactics for civil rights.
Photo: TheBlackHour.com
The event began with a Lift E’ry Voice and Sing – the Black National Anthem – performed members of the Laney Black Student Union. The quad was decorated with red, black and green balloons.
African American Studies professor Tamika Brown, chair of the Ethnic Studies department, discussed the 2010 Black History Month theme, “The History of Black Economic Empowerment.” She said the theme is significant today, and to upcoming campus events.
“We’ll have people talking about Green Jobs and how Black people fit into that new economy,” Brown said, “as well as how the economy is affecting Black men.”
In some urban areas, the unemployment rate is as high as 50 percent, according to Brown.
“We’ll also discuss racism in society. Does it still exist post-Obama?” Brown asked.
Faculty Senate President Dr. Karolyn Van Puten said that Black History Month speaks to the “peculiar history” of the United States and the need for people of African Descent to “reclaim our identity from what was trashed,” referring to enslavement.
“Take this opportunity to expand beyond this black skin,” Van Puten said. She added that Black History Month is relevant to all people, not just African Americans.
Acting College President Dr. Elnora Webb spoke of the crippling affect slavery and racism has had on the psychology of African Americans, and the need to find value in all people.
“It’s important to know who we are and why we feel how we feel,” Webb said. “It’s important because the way we feel about ourselves has an impact on how we treat ourselves and other folks.”
Webb added that many of the behaviors have been passed down from slavery, generation to generation, but African people have a history beyond slavery.
“Slavery is just a recent part of our history,” Webb said. “We need to understand history to understand who we are as a complete people.”
Laney BSU spokesman Ray Henderson encouraged students to be active in the fight against budget cuts.
“We are fighting for our education,” Henderson said, and to “get people off the streets so they can learn.”
Laney BSU members then showcased some of their musical talents, rapping and reciting poetry.
Scholar Carter G. Woodson originally started Black History Month in 1926. It began as Negro History Week, but later became Black History Month. Woodson selected the month of February because it was the month both abolitionist Frederick Douglas and President Abraham Lincoln were born.
February 1 was the 50th anniversary of The Greensboro Four sit-in. The demonstration ushered in a new era or youth-led direct action tactics for civil rights.
Don Reed Laney College Black History Month
Oakland, California. In a city where where pimpin' has been glamorized since the classic blaxploitation film, "The Mack" to rapper Too Short, comedian Don Reed's one man play "East 14th: Tales of a Reluctant Player" brings a refreshing, youthful message to the world's so-called, "oldest profession."
It just so happens to be a tale wrapped up inside platforms, bell bottoms, a cape and a sunroof Cadillac jamming soulful tunes.
"East 14th" is a funky, biographical, one-man play about Reed's journey through puberty, rocked by conflicting lessons, lifestyles and leaders. Set in 1970s Oakland, the performance is a nostalgic look back at a bygone era through the eyes of a child, all grown up.
As a young teen, Reed's mother remarries a strict man who belongs "to the religion that rhymes with 'tahovah's sitnesses.'"
"You know, the religion where they knock on your door at seven in the morning," Reed jokes. He chronicles the journey from his stepfather's home--straightlaced, no holiday or birthday celebrations (and certainly no nookie)--to moving into the home of his father, who just so happens to be a pimp.
"I just thought he was really into hats," Reed said. And when he interrupts some women paying his father, he jokes, "I thought they were his friends. I didn't know I was walking into an employees' meeting."
Reed hilariously recounts his first sexual experiences and the nervousness that came with it. He also once dated a prostitute without knowing it.
Two other major influences besides his father(s) are Reed's older brothers, Darrel and Tony. Darrel is a pontificating-to-the-point-of-nearly-stuttering ladies' man who goes on to work at a beauty salon for unhindered access to women. Tony is Reed's "über gay" older brother with a unmatched self-defense arsenal.
Troutmouth, a jive, fish-faced character who exaggerates his pimpish stature, serves as an example of who not to be.
The funniest part of Reed's performance involves an summertime incident where Reed, heading out to go rollerblading at Lake Merritt, runs out of sheen for his "Lord Jesus Perm." So he decides to use butter as a substitute.
The moral climax of the play comes when Troutmouth tries to kick game to Reed on entering the pimping profession. Reed's father returns home and confronts Troutmouth. He points to Reed's public speaking trophies from Chabot College, knowing that a great future of public speaking lay ahead.
Despite his father's faults--being illiterate, or being engaged in what many consider to be an immoral profession-he encourages Reed and his other children to embrace themselves.
But Reed's life is full of surprises. A jail-bound drug dealer turns down Reed's job application, his player brother gives a wad of cash to a homeless woman and his gay brother beats up everybody.
Reed deftly tells his story, impersonating about a dozen characters, while remaining true to their individual contributions to his growth as a man. His unconventional upbringing becomes a heartwarming and hilarious tale about a boy finding his way to manhood.
The set's simplicity keeps you focused on Reed as he shifts from character to character. A wall full of brim hats sits behind an East 14th street sign. He alternates between a red leather seat and a simple stool, highlighting his conflict, all under the watchful eye of a disco ball.
The play represented a homecoming of sorts for Reed. After screening off-Broadway and at the Marsh in San Francisco last year, he was able to bring East 14th, and some 1970s flare back to Oakland.
"East 14th is more than a street, it's a path, a journey towards my own self-discovery," Reed said.
Can you dig it?
It can be dug by me.
This review originally appeared in the Laney Tower newspaper.
