I sat down with Elody Gyekis the other day to chat about change through art, community organizing, and what makes being an activist worthwhile (and hard!).
Check it out!

At the AIHEC (American Indian Higher Education Consortium) Student Congress 3rd Annual Film Festival this year, I took 2nd place. AIHEC was held in Bismarck, ND of all places (North Dakota is suprisingly more boring than South Dakota). 

Sophia Kizilbash, Will White Eyes, Kevin Killer, Kim Killer and Valerie Collins were also in attendance.

Here is Wanagi directed by James La Pointe

Hi Fellow Fam,

I am in the proces of developing my blueprint (as many of you are as well)!

So, here's my vision right:

I want to live in a world where art inspires people to better themselves and their communities.

I thought it was important to highlight this article. Many Americans do not believe that African-Americans in the upper circles of life understand what is actually happening in the real world. I believe that many of them do, though the cameras follow them around there are several in particular who demand that they be respected and given the opportunity to give back.

This is my treat to you this week. I always like real journalism--and Ms. Love hit the keys nicely.

-------------------------kYm 

By Kia Love
Black College Wire

Reprint 

Her

I never imagined it would take
eighteen hours to get to Her--Her name I cannot say just yet.

I have been dropping the ball. After YP4's kind invitation to blog, I've been drowning in festival preparation, and not writing nearly as much as I'd (ambitiously) intended.

So by way of explanation - next week here in New York, I'll be leading the launch of Women Center Stage, a major, multi-disciplinary festival that brings together women artists, activists and thinkers whose work calls attention to human struggles globally.

I've spent the last 10 months programming and producing Women Center Stage, a multi-disciplinary festival that brings together women artists, activists thinkers, and writers bringing their voices to bear on a range of human issues.

Women weren't really my thing before 10 months ago. I consider myself a feminist, but hadn't truly given it much thought until recently. I was more involved in the labor movement, more interested in my art, and more distracted by my renegade, reactionary government.

But working on a festival whose stated mission is to take women out of the "ghetto of women's issues," to proclaim women's roles as changemakers in all arenas, I began to do some more thinking about what feminism means to me, what it means to be a woman activist, as distinct from an activist who happens to be female, what it means to be a woman in the world.

In Washington state, March 1st will be a particularly sad day for a lot of families struggling to get by.

It will be the day that "full family sanctions" will be implemented, effectively cutting off all financial support for families (including children) on welfare who are on sanction from the WorkFirst program.  

The problem?  Research by the state's Department of Social and Health Services has proven that 50% of all of these sanctions are illegal, meaning that there was a justifiable cause for the welfare recipients to not meet the terms of their contracts.  Such causes include lack of child care and transportation to attend meetings.