Maryland Shaw

Thankfully, the “Ella Baker” tradition lives on in Baltimore through young women like Maryland Shaw.

It was in the Baltimore Algebra Project (BAP) that now 22-year-old, Maryland Shaw, got her start in local activism. While a sophomore in high school, she was drawn to BAP after being frustrated by dated and tattered textbooks in high school that she was not allowed to take home to study from. Initially believing that she could do nothing about her problem; she learned of a student-led advocacy group that rejected the notion that youth were powerless to positively impact their own conditions. She joined BAP and not soon after she was helping to organize a three-day strike against educational inequality in the state.

Since that time, Maryland has deepened and broadened her participation in educational activism. In addition to fighting for equal resources for city schools; she is among the leaders of the campaign to halt the construction of a multi-million dollar youth jail in East Baltimore. She has done it all – from organizing community meetings with Baltimore residents about the youth jail to directly confronting Governor O’Malley as he campainged for re-election in 2010.

Today, Shaw is a student at Morgan State University with plans to study Early Childhood Education. She serves as a mentor and volunteer at the Urban Youth Initiative Project (UYIP) – a program of the Pan-Afrikan Liberation Movement. She is committed to nurturing the next generation of youth activists. When asked about the state of youth activism in the city, Maryland observed, “the more I hear about how we need to look to the youth [for leadership] the less I see it.”

Maryland Shaw is a descendant of Ella Baker in more ways than one and in an activist arena that remains dominated by high-powered and often prideful male egos; Shaw is leaving her own mark on Baltimore City and beyond.

More than symbolic gestures (which certainly has its place); I am more excited to see the development of this kind of direct organizing and activism in Baltimore. There is real potential here to raise the profile of the predatory practices of banks in Baltimore and its impact upon the city’s Black community and the poor especially. It also creates opportunity for people in desperate need of housing to literally come in from the cold this winter.

It is shameful and sinful, in my opinion, to be in a city that on any given night has 3400 homeless people on the streets and at the same time have nearly 40,000 city-owned vacant properties.

The local Occupy Our Homes group draws inspiration from the Take Back The Land Movement founded by Max Rameau. I believe that the conditions are ripe for a new kind of activism in Baltimore and I believe that People of Faith need to be partner with the effort. In this clip, Max Rameau explains Take Back the Land and below you’ll find a flyer inviting you to join your power with Lila’s power to prevent her eviction from her home.

I hope you’ll be moved to support this effort. (Click the flyer for larger view)

To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

And in that spirit of Nia; I’d like to share this important article written by Dr. Adam Clark.

CHRISTIANITY AND KWANZAA
By Dr. Adam Clark
(originally posted on The Huffington Post)

It’s strange that the day after Christians celebrate the birth of child who was to become a liberator that they fail to see the liberating possibilities in the week long celebration of Kwanzaa (Dec. 26-Jan. 1.) The infancy narratives in Matthew and Luke portray Jesus as the bearer of concrete longings of a people for freedom from Roman rule. Kwanzaa was created out of the liberation narrative of the 1960s. The longing of African American people for freedom, selfhood and beauty grounds and shapes the vision, values and practices of Kwanzaa. It is derived from African first-fruits harvest celebrations and encourages it’s observers to be thankful for good and beauty of Creation and act for the well-being and wholeness of the world.

Despite its ecumenical character, Kwanzaa remains controversial in black churches. Many popular websites professing to explore the relationship between Christianity and Kwanzaa encourage Christians not to practice Kwanzaa. These websites question the relevance of Kwanzaa to the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Some regard Kwanzaa as a rival “pagan holiday,” “cultic celebration” or as idol worship. Others question the motives of the creator of Kwanzaa, Maulana Karenga, who is cast as an anti-Christian thinker, hostile to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These religious detractors position themselves as defenders of the faith and see their attacks on Kwanzaa as a way of preserving biblical faith against the unbiblical principles of Kwanzaa.

What’s ironic is that the people who denounce Kwanzaa do not have the same suspicion toward the celebration of Christmas. There is a sharp distinction between the biblical portrayal of Christmas and its contemporary emphases. Christmas Day originated when the church used the stories of the birth of Jesus to place a thin Christian veneer over the Roman holiday celebrating the Winter solstice. The American celebration of Christmas that features Santa Claus as its chief icon, lighted trees, shopping rituals, massive food grabs and spectacular gift giving resemble the festivals of Imperial Rome that honored the might of Caesar more than the humble story of a couple that gave birth to a Christ-child in a manger.

CLICK HERE TO READ FULL ARTICLE

Habari Gani? Ujamma – Cooperative Economics

To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.

It was a little more than three years ago when I giving particular attention to the development of the early Christian church as described in the book of Acts. Scripture says that after the departure of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God descended in mass upon his followers imbuing them with confidence, power, and the ability to speak in foreign languages so that others nearby could understand. Not only that, but the Spirit also was the fuel which re-organized this infant community around daily fellowship and shared meals. Remarkably, another feature of this new community of Faith was that they rejected personal possessions and sold their belongings in order to provide for anyone’s needs. [You can read the full biblical account by Clicking Here]

My excitement of that scriptural vision at that time pushed me to proclaim that the early Christians were Socialists and to suggest that today’s Christians should be as well.

And while I’m not sure that I would so hastily draw the same conclusion today, at the very least I still maintain that scripture presents the early Church as embracing an inspiring COMMUNALISM. There was a certain and celebrated interconnectedness that characterized the early Christian community. And when I think about that interconnectedness and strong sense of communalism, I think about today’s Kwanzaa principle – Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics.

Many have spoken on the importance of the Black Community handling money with greater intentionality and for purposes that would uplift our community. Brother Malcolm X spoke plainly about the importance of us having a hand in the economics of our own neighborhoods, owning the businesses in our neighborhoods and thereby being in a position to employ our own people. Tied to Bro. Malcolm’s position, research shows that Black businesses are more likely than White businesses to hire Black people. Given the stark unemployment rate today for American Africans (15.5% among those still looking for work), supporting Black Businesses must become a priority in our community for in many cases when we support Black Businesses, we support ourselves.

I’m so thankful to live in a city with so many industrious American Africans who are running their own businesses and I make it my business to support them in many ways.

For example, like many of you, I have tons of meetings to attend every month and many of these meetings happen over some kind of meal. Whenever I can, I recommend the “meeting over a meal” to take place at a Black cafe’ or restaurant. Baltimore has many of them, but two of my favorites are the Darker Than Blue Cafe on Greenmount Avenue and Terra Cafe on 25th Street. These two award-winning restaurants are led by inspiring Black Men – Bro. Casey Jenkins (Darker Than Blue) and Bro. Terence Dickson (Terra Cafe) respectively. They’ve created a “down home” atmosphere and serve good food at reasonable prices.

Rev. Heber Brown, III pictured with Brother Nati of Everyone's Place African Cultural Center

You can also get great books and Afrocentric DVD’s from Reality Speaks Bookstore and Media Center. Bro. Jabari and Sista Yaa are longtime advocates for an Afrocentric way of life for African people in Tubman City (Baltimore) and should be supported.

When it comes to apparel, I tend to head to Sankofa African & World Bazaar on North Charles Street.

But for the past month or so, I’ve been excited though because the clothing brand, Alkebu-Lan Gear, has had a kiosk at Towson Mall now located on the third floor. Bro. Darron Waller, (a fellow Morganite!) has created an exciting and fashionable brand that is worn by people all over the world – including on Sesame Street. Bro. Waller has a special sale running until Saturday, December 31, 2011 – buy one shirt, get two free!

I could go on, but you get the point. For all the unseemly and parasitic businesses that drain life and resources from the Black community (with our support!); there are many many more inspiring and empowering Black-owned establishments that stand as beacons of our industrious history, champions of our culture, and founding stones of the 21st-Century Black Wall Street that we have yet to rebuild.

No matter what city or state you’re reading this from; I’d love to know what Black-owned, community-supportive businesses that you frequent or know of. Let’s connect the dots and share. Please provide a website or physical address where possible.

Ashe.

Habari Gani? Ujima – Collective Work & Responsibility

To build and maintain our community together and make our brother’s and sister’s problems our problems and to solve them together.

While preparing to write today’s reflection on Ujima, my eyes zoned in on the word “problems” in the description of this sacred value. I began to ask myself, “What are our problems that need our collective support?” One of the first things that came to mind revolved around “our children”…and more specifically our children (meaning Afrikan children) who are under the jurisdiction of the courts or are wards of the state in some way. To be clear, our children are not the problem, but they experienced problems that negatively impacted their healthy development. Now, government municipalities and their various agencies have charge over their lives with the stated goal to work in their “best interest.”

Many of these children are in foster care or tied up in some adoptive agency, group home, or department of social services and many of them are Black youth. Without even looking at the research, I know that if I walk into the Baltimore City Department of Social Services, that Black youth will be disproportionately represented. I would not be surprised if the same was true at Baltimore’s Woodbourne Center and the Baltimore office of Arrow Child & Family Ministries. Another layer of interesting dynamic is that at the latter two agencies I mentioned, while the youth population is probably majority Afrikan; the Board and Staff members of those agencies are probably overwhelmingly White. This dynamic is likely to show up no matter where you’re reading this from.

Why does that matter?

Well, I can’t argue that these “White” nonprofit agencies and government agencies don’t do some good to protect and care for youth no matter their racial or economic background. Having a wife who was a social worker and being in regular contact with those who still labor in this field, I’ve been witness to some of the horrifying scenes in which these professionals have to enter for the protection and benefit of a young person. Many of them deserve great credit and its a powerful ministry in which they are engaged.

However, these nonprofits and government agencies cannot be expected and should not be expected to support the youth in their journey toward a greater understanding and embrace of their ethnic identity. While there no doubt are exceptions among individual professionals in this field, the knowledge base of many of these organizations is completely ignorant of African culture and its import for Black youth. I agree with Dr. Henry H. Mitchell who echoes in his book, Black Preaching: The Recovery of a Powerful Art, a sentiment that is a foregone conclusion among the Afrikan “conscious” community. He says that culture is like a survival kit that speaks to the “wisdom and methods of a given cultural group, for the purpose of ensuring its survival.” He tells Black preachers (and it sure enough applies to many others) to work within the culture of a setting to communicate good news. I contend that among the many other things that youth in these systems need; they also need a firm founding in their Afrikan culture. It will help them in innumerable ways.

Well, how can these largely “White” nonprofits and government agencies support youth from within that young person’s own culture when they don’t know it – and thereby can’t value and uphold it!

That’s where we as the Black community have opportunity to engage. If I had my druthers, there would be no Black children – or children period – as wards of the state. But that ideal is not our reality at this moment. So what can we – the Black Community – do in the meantime? I raise 5 ideas for your consideration:

1. Survey those within your circle of connection who have some knowledge of the local foster care, adoptive agency, and group home scene in your town – listening especially for potential opportunities for support. These may be social workers, adoption caseworkers, group home directors, etc.

5. In addition to being a cultural advocate, talk to your church members, frat brothers or sorors, about serving as legal advocates for these youth so they don’t have to go into the American court system alone. The courts have been a place where deep injustices have been committed against Afrikan people – don’t let that tradition continue upon Black youth and you not be there to stand with them. The National Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) can assist you in getting started.

What’s the point of being “conscious” if we don’t have a “conscience” toward our own children in these systems! We can rail against racism/white supremacy, white privilege, and legal and economic discrimination which leads to the disproportionate presence of Black youth in these agencies all day. (and rightly so!) But the fact of the matter is that our children – no matter the reasons – are in there and they need the support, love, and care of the Black Village. Their problems should be our problems and we have the opportunity to work with them to find solutions that will benefit them and us.

Ashe.

Habari Gani? Kujichagulia! which means Self Determination – To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.

Self-Determination is such a beautiful principle which speaks to the freedom that all individuals and people-groups should be able to rightly exercise. Though not always using the term, I have been writing about “kujichagulia” on this site for a long time.

In early 2008, I was blessed to be a part of the Park Heights Community “Dry Out” campaign that sought to expel liquor stores and predatory businesses from the 5100 block of Park Heights Avenue in Baltimore. It’s beyond shameful that there are 4 liquor stores in that one block! It’s also telling that in this overwhelmingly Black community; all of those liquor stores are owned by non-Black people. Under the leadership of Derrick Compton and with the support of others like now-councilman Brandon Scott, Al Watson, and Pastor Kevin Brooks; we put weekly pressure on these establishments to let them know they were being monitored for infractions and targeted for eventual expulsion.

In November 2009, I critiqued the Emerging Christian Movement in the spirit of self-determination, for its exclusion of non-white voices as it presented theological dynamics and features as if they created them while all the while People of Color of other Faith traditions and denominations have been practicing different “emerging” principles for generations.

I wrote about “kujichagulia” back in August 2010 when I proclaimed that “Black People Should Control The Baltimore City Public School System” on the grounds that Afrikan youth make up about 98% of the student population and the city is somewhere around 65% Afrikan. This notwithstanding, Black folks are regularly begging and pleading to have substantive say in the education of their own youth.

Self-determination pushed me back in April 2011 when I talked about the general “whiteness” of the Urban Farming/Healthy Food Movement and the need for people of color to be at the lead of the food revolution just as we are in most cases the ones suffering under the brunt of America’s food deserts.

And of course, my involvement in the struggle against Governor O’Malley’s plan to build a new youth jail in East Baltimore has been fueled by my firm belief that the Black Community should decide what institutions we want or don’t want in our community just like White people and Jewish people decide what will or won’t come in their communities. If White people don’t want a business or even a church to come into their community; chances are it won’t come. If Jewish people don’t want a business to come in their community; chances are it doesn’t come. Why should it be any different for Afrikan people? We don’t want O’Malley’s multi-million dollar youth jail and many of us have committed ourselves to organize, agitate, and protest – even if it means physically impeding the path of construction trucks – until O’Malley bends to our wishes.

This, my friends, is self-determination and in different ways it’s happening all over the world.

I pray that the flames of “Kujichagulia” burn even brighter in the new year for the Global Afrikan Family. As Dr. Martin L. King, Jr. reminded us – “No one can ride your back unless its bent.” No more hunched-backness in the Black community! May we stand up straight like righteous women and men and commit to “define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves” without timidity or apology.

Ashe.

So off the top let me say that yes – I am a follower of Christ and yes – I celebrate Kwanzaa. Some may see these affirmations as incompatible and polar opposites, however, there is no incongruity with me. I am thankful for Kwanzaa and truly appreciate the fact that the day after I join countless millions of Christians in celebrating the gift of new life in Christ; I can immediately keep the celebration going by observing the new life that is possible for the Afrikan community as we embrace sacred values.

Those sacred values in Kwanzaa are called the Nguzo Saba – the 7 principles – and today the principle that is uplifted is UMOJA which means UNITY. With this principle we are invited to “strive for and maintain unity between the family, community, nation, and race.”

In my estimation this is a beautiful way to start this sacred week of observance for the Afrikan community. And leading up to this day of UNITY, my mind was reflecting on Bro. Malcolm X and his speech entitled The Ballot of The Bullet – given in 1964. The whole speech is powerful to say the least, but the first few paragraphs and the closing paragraph are particularly important given today’s focus on UNITY.

Bro. Malcolm goes to great lengths in the opening of the speech to diminish divisions between himself and other Freedom Fighters who embraced different religious perspectives. By 1964, he understood that religion should NOT be a barrier that keeps the Black Community from working together. He shared his position that the Black community has a common fight and a common enemy. At the end of his talk that day, he pledged his support for any of the organizations or ministers (Christian or otherwise) on the rostrum who needed his support. Bro. Malcolm’s evolution in that way can inspire the Black Community today.

There are yet unhealthy levels of factionalism and outright division in the Afrikan community…there is even disconnect within factions that causes greater splintering. As I shared recently on a WEAA radio program; one of the tools of the MAAFA (or Afrikan Holocaust) was Disconnection. African people were forcibly disconnected from their names, their villages, their culture, their land, their religious beliefs, etc. My position is that if DISCONNECTION was the tool used to overpower us; then RECONNECTION and thereby UNITY will be the path that restores our collective strength.

I am excited to see the seeds of this in Baltimore. There is a rising generation of social justice activists and servants of the Afrikan Community that are expressing a greater readiness for strategic unity around shared goals. We are African Spiritualists, Muslims, Christians, Black Nationalists, Pan Africanists, and Integrationists. We don’t agree on every minor point or detail, however, we recognize that no one of us and no one of our organizations will be able to achieve some of the laudable goals that we cherish for the broader Afrikan community in the city.

We MUST work together. We MUST share resources. We MUST lend support to each others initiatives. We MUST begin to identify specific points that we will work together on in 2012. This does not mean that the distinct identities of any of our organizations must be erased. Rather, I believe that our greatest strength is in our varied gifts, organizational identities, and perspectives that when combined can produce lasting fruit.

I close this Umoja reflection by giving thanks for some of the Afrikan-centered groups that I know of that are serving Baltimore’s Afrikan community in remarkable ways. I give thanks for Everyone’s Place Bookstore & African Cultural Center, Solvivaz Nation/Reality Speaks Bookstore, Habesha, the Pan-Afrikan Liberation Movement and its various programs, ISA Academy, Nsoroma Academy, Ujima People’s Progress Party, the Marshall “Eddie” Conway Freedom School, and the many others that I don’t even know about (please add other Baltimore-based, Afrikan-centered organizations that you know of in the comments section)

May 2012 be a year of continued blessing to your organizations and I pray that we can lay the foundation for closer cooperation and functional unity for the benefit of our people. If there is anything that I can do to support you, your organizations, and/or initiatives that will benefit our community; please don’t hesitate to ask. I truly appreciate you all and look forward to strengthening the ties that bind us together.

Ashe.

“I think I have some sense of what neighborhoods in Baltimore are like and what they need.” That was, in part, M.J. Brodie’s response to my critique of his agency’s impact on Baltimore’s Black Community. He knows what our neighborhoods are like and he knows what we need. Really?

In an open-air, public meeting with him organized by Another BDC Is Possible (an offshoot of Occupy Baltimore) I, along with others challenged him on the lack of participation, lack of transparency, and lack of commitment to economic justice within the Baltimore Development Corporation. I told Mr. Brodie that his agency operates from a “just trust us to do what’s best for you” mentality, however, that unearned trusts that the Black Community has given the BDC and other Baltimore agencies has produced some strange fruit.

I used that line in my words to Brodie – “strange fruit” – and I almost wished I hadn’t now because he seemed more concerned about proving to me that he knew where the reference came from rather than addressing the central concern of my challenge to him in that the majority demographic of Baltimore – the Black Community – has in essence an extremely limited “official” role in helping to give voice to the vision and future of the city.

I spoke at the mic that night feeling a certain responsibility to the silent workers of Baltimore who clean the skyscrapers downtown while smiling at “Boss” and enduring dehumanizing dynamics because of the economic dependence on less than suitable wages. I spoke with responsibility to the folks who are bused into the Inner Harbor to make sure tables are clean, doors are opened, food is warm, and a pleasurable experience is created for the monied, and privileged “upper economic class” that are said to be so key to the advancement of this Black City. I spoke with responsibility for the Black Youth whose very presence at the Inner Harbor is a protest against a city that creates enjoyable spaces for tourists while closing schools and threatening to shutter recreational centers. I spoke to Brodie with responsibility to 80 acres of a Black Community in East Baltimore that was summarily moved out of their homes in a gentrification project to make way for “other people” who are treated as if they are the promise of a “better” East Baltimore – and those grandmothers, grandfathers, and Black Families that they replaced were a curse that caused the dilapidation of the infrastructure around the behemoth that is Johns Hopkins.

Just trust us, he says. “I know what’s best for you.”

That night I left the polished skyscrapers of the Inner Harbor which stand like monuments to White privilege and power in this Black town and went back to my community where there are about four liquor stores and a dingy Murry’s that serves as the community’s food depot. “Tobacco and Groceries” reads the banner announcing the latest business coming to the block. Vacant buildings, liquor, check cashing, and stale food are the staples of the area of the community where I live which is just south of Belvedere Square – a posh, boutique, and restaurant area partly financed by the Baltimore Development Corporation and definitely designed with the local higher income, White community in mind. To see it and then look at the businesses and buildings in my immediate neighborhood, one would think you’re looking at two different cities – not two pictures of the very same street!

With the BDC’s support, some get high-end food, dining, furnishing, and events and others get….this:

STRANGE FRUIT INDEED

Mr. Marshall "Eddie" Conway

Mr. Marshall “Eddie” Conway is a true servant of his community. Imprisoned for more than four decades for the crime of murdering a Baltimore City Police Officer – a crime for which he maintains his innocence – Mr. Conway has not allowed the prison cell to suppress his spirit and will to organize his community.

The former Baltimore-based, Black Panther Party Leader, has been a stabilizing and healing force in Maryland prisons. Mentoring young prisoners, co-creating violence prevention dramatic presentations, and speaking to the world through his writings – telling his story of growing up in Baltimore so that others might be helped.

I am so thankful that members of my church and I have connected with Friend of a Friend Mentoring Program – an effort that Mr. Conway cofounded that focuses on conflict resolution, communication, and coping skills inside three of Maryland’s correctional institutions.

On Tuesday, November 1, 2011, there will be a parole board hearing for Mr. Conway. Supporters are asking that all people of Faith and Conscience would consider faxing a letter to the Board requesting that Mr. Conway be granted parole. He has been a tremendous blessing to so many individuals and families while behind prison bars; there’s no telling the positive impact he would have on the community as a physically free man. Please consider editing the letter below and given the deadline PLEASE PRINT OUT AND FAX THE LETTER TO THE FOLLOWING NUMBER TODAY: 410-764-4355

Please comment below to let me know that you’ve faxed the letter if you feel led to do so. You’ll be joining more than 200 others who have already extended themselves in support of Mr. Conway. Thank you.

Honorable Members of the Maryland Parole Board
6776 Reisterstown Road
Suite 307
Baltimore, Maryland 21215

RE: Marshall Eddie Conway, # 116469

Dear Honorable Parole Board Members,

Support for the release of Marshall Eddie Conway has been previously and persistently expressed by thousands of Maryland tax payers and community citizens throughout the nation and abroad. This petition respectfully reiterates the sentiments of those who support the parole of Marshall Eddie Conway.

Inmate Conway, whose parole is scheduled for November 1, 2011, has been incarcerated in the Maryland state penal system for over four decades. Throughout that period, inmate Conway has utilized and continues to utilize his time to resolve conflict, build peace, and improve life outcomes for fellow prisoners and at-risk youth. The information below highlights ways in which Marshall Eddie Conway has been of invaluable service to the prison and Maryland community.

• Founded Friend of a Friend (2007), a peace building program that has trained 200 plus inmates per year to be mentors and peacemakers

• Collaborated with WombWorks Productions to produce “The Birth of Peace”, a play about finding peaceful resolutions to conflicts between street organizations in poor communities

• Worked to secure a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to help improve the literacy skills of Maryland inmates

• Created a counseling program for youth at risk of imprisonment that operated for 12 consecutive years

While incarcerated, Mr. Conway has exhibited extraordinary character and personal commitment to peace building and positively impacting society. Maryland residents, including those representing the Baltimore City Council and the Maryland General Assembly support Mr. Conway’s release and re-integration into the Maryland community. In light of these factors, I respectfully ask this Honorable board to grant parole. Marshall Eddie Conway has proved himself a model inmate and will undoubtedly prove a model citizen.

Respectfully submitted,

[Your name]