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Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Bruce George and Dr. Louis Reyes Rivera are at it again. Still riding the business and social success of The Bandana Republic: A Literary Anthology by Gang Members and Their Affiliates, Mr. George and Dr. Rivera again believe the meat of greatness, depth, and overcoming comes by way of the people, even sometimes the terminally labeled and disenfranchised.
Submissions are now being accepted for the forth-coming best-selling revelation of the people, Street Smarts: An Anthology of Urban Survival Strategies.
Here's an opportunity for the entire planet to hear your truth, our truth, about both our desperation and our aspiration, straight up from the streets. Street Smarts is an anthology of real life stories of how folk who have come from the bottom have developed their own ways and means to survive.
Street Smarts: An Anthology of Urban Survival Strategies is a literary first that focuses on how urban working class people enhance their earning power despite often being underemployed. How do lower paid workers make ends meet? How do the unemployed survive once they've used up their unemployment benefits? What happens to them once they disappear from official statistics? What tactics have they developed? Is there another economic system at work that is totally outside of mainstream standards? What does the underclass do to feed the family within a hostile environment? Are the strategies they devise parts of yet another working standard?
To what extent is there an underground economy that is not exactly illegal, yet for which there is no yardstick by which to measure its effectiveness? Given the current economic downturns and consistent losses of jobs, are the strategies and options that have long ago developed among the working poor still viable? What are they? Are they legal, extralegal or illegal? What common threads hold the underclass together? Do they bear their own ethics? How applicable are they?
The answers to these questions serve as the parameters for Street Smarts. The target audience includes the hundreds of thousands who, like never before, are faced with new challenges – unemployment, loss of homes, debts, etc., with homelessness and public shelters their potential options.
Click here for Street Smarts Submissions Guidelines http://www.bbsvaluetour.com/i/u/10027100/f/StreetSmartGuidelines.pdf
BRUCE GEORGE
BBS Value Tour featured Author/Speaker -To book call 1.800.584.3651, ext. 1 or email booktalent@bbsvaluetour.com
Bruce is a visionary, executive producer, writer, poet and activist. He was born and raised in New York City. He has written poetry/prose & articles for over 37 years. His work has been published in major magazines, anthologies, and literary publications. He has written testimonials from the likes of Essence Magazine, Emerge Magazine, Class Magazine, Harlem River Press etc.
Bruce has won multiple poetry & talent contests. He has won several awards such as a "Peabody Award" for "Russell Simmons Presents, Def Poetry (HBO)", a "Miky Award" for "Russell Simmons Presents, Def Poetry Jam (HBO)", an "Upscale Showcase Award", a "Trail Blazer Award" etc. for his outstanding vision, production, writing and performance. READ MORE
Louis Reyes Rivera
Known as the Janitor of History, poet/essayist Louis Reyes Rivera has been studying his craft since 1960 and teaching it since 1969. The recipient of over 20 awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), a Special Congressional Recognition Award (1988), and the CCNY 125th Anniversary Medal (1973), Rivera has assisted in the publication of well over 200 books, including John Oliver Killens' Great Black Russian (Wayne State U., 1989), Adal Maldonado's Portraits of the Puerto Rican Experience (IPRUS, 1984), and Bum Rush The Page: A Def Poetry Jam (Crown Publishers, 2001).
Considered by many as a necessary bridge between the African and Latino American communities, he is a professor of Pan-African, African-American, Caribbean and Puerto Rican literature and history whose essays and poems have appeared in numerous publications, including Areyto, Boletin, The City Sun, African Voices, and in five award-winning collections: In Defense of Mumia; ALOUD: Live from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Of Sons And Lovers, and his own Scattered Scripture.
Since 1996, Rivera continues to host a bi-monthly 1st & 3rd Sundays Jazzoetry & Open Mic @ Sistas' Place (where he also conducts his writing workshop), in Brooklyn, and has appeared in Jazz clubs and festivals with The Sun Ra All-Stars Project, Ahmed Abdullah's Diaspora, and his own band, The Jazzoets. He has recently appeared on C-SPAN, as part of the REPARATIONS NOW! rally held in Washington, D.C., this past August 17th. Currently, Louis Reyes Rivera can be heard every Thursday, at 2pm, on radio station WBAI (99.5 FM), hosting his own weekly show, PERSPECTIVE.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
I am currently reviewing Oscar Micheaux and what I call The Legacy Films he created and left for this and all generations to come. The Oscar Micheaux film showings held periodically in various museums, not-for-profit and educational venues are important as they inform the public of this great film maker and writer. However, I advocate that we should look at The Legacy Films and his books as the foundation from which to re-build and control a the unique segment of the film industry he pioneered.
We must understand the State of Black American Film and what it was; has become; and what it is not. All of this must be carried out within the context of what Mr. Oscar Micheaux produced in his life time and the depth of the subject matter. We all have heard the term ‘legacy software’ and how new versions are built on the ‘legacy software’ and millions of dollars spun. Black Independent Film Producers must embrace what I’m calling The Legacy Films of Oscar Micheaux and build – establish and control our place in the industry!
Many Black American film makers remember Oscar Micheaux, the greatest Black American Filmmaker to have ever set image to celluloid. Now is the time for our Black film makers and actors to revisit his great films and the books he wrote; it for us to revive remake and expand on his great body of film and literary works. I dare say Black Film makers have a duty to do so, if only for the sake of correcting OurStory and American History. America is ready to embrace the hidden reality of OurStory whether we or they know it or not! Reality check: Over 50 percent of the popular vote went to an African-American for President – that is a significant critical mass of minds thirsting for change and truth!
The subject matter of Mr. Micheaux’s films and his books offers a truly rich bounty of inspiration for new films and powerful subject matter for remakes which will provide parts for our Black actors, entertainers, and work for all our people involved in the industry at every level. There will be no need for Black actors to beg for parts or hope for ‘green lighting’ if those among us of like mind truly plan and come together to reap the Harvest of OurStory! We will be able to create our own awards and spend our money on empowering ourselves! America will walk the Red Black & Green Carpet – and love it!
We see the White American film makers and Television show producers time and time again retell the history, ad nauseam, of how the Caucasian European immigrants came to these shores and took life and built and destroyed empires. Epic films depicting the Jewish, Italian, German and Irish stories and how they fit the tapestry that was to become America and TheirStory spun and told to all – from The Birth of a Nation to The God Father – The Gangs of New York and the thousands of hours of TV shows and mini-series aired over the years!
Reality check: Oscar Micheaux’s 1920’s film titled Within Our Gates, was a direct response to, and repudiation of the above mentioned D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation, in which Mr. Micheaux provides the real truth repudiating Giffith’s depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as heroic figures in white sheets. There is a need for a whole lot more Reality checks!
Hollywood and America showered billions of dollars and hundreds of awards upon film makers TV show producers past and present. However, all of the accolades will be put into a new Black and White American Perspective when our Independent Black Film producers roll the cameras to bring to light the missing chapters of real American History and OurStory – as told in and inspired by the great Oscar Micheaux in The Legacy Films he left for us to build on. Do not worry about producing and creating block busters or winning ol’ Oscar! If we plan; form collectives and do the work the money and accolades will come. More importantly truth will be told and our children will know their worth and that the beauty and pride of Black America did not begin with winning the White House nor will it end their!
Reality check: The records and milestones set by athletes when Black America was intentionally prevented from competing are all of less value because of this racial exclusion – there was no true competition! The same is true for all areas of industry, the arts and sciences where Black America has been excluded and discriminated against and not allowed to grow and shine – posthumous awards do not validate past wrongs or records! I watched Berry Gordy and Smokey Robinson on the British bloke’s American Idol show. Query: how is it that this British guy came to rule America and not a is not a Quincy Jones - Stevie Wonder - Berry Gordy - Michael Jackson – Motown – OurTown! When will we flip the script or better yet take control of the script as Oscar Micheaux did!
I would like to here from Black Independent Film Makers, artists, entertainers that are interested in breaking the chains and truly being independent of the Hollywood plantation.
I am currently at my international office located in the Red Sea Port city of Jeddah Saudi Arabia, gateway between Asia and Africa. I am putting together a Plan B – BlackStar Rising™ - my services are available to indies, business consultants, project developers and artist groups of like mind interested in building collective efforts for mutual benefit and the greater cause. I will undertake representation of qualified projects seeking equity funds and make presentations on their behalf to my interested international clients.
Peace, Power & Blessings
Dr. F. A. Young, Esq. Executive Director [click here]
Email my attention: consultations@peacezone.net
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