JANUARY 17: SCHOOLS NOT JAILS ORGANIZERS WILL RETURN TO SITE, DESPITE ARRESTS

Organizers of today’s Schools Not Jails Occupation kickoff rally and action say that they have no plans to cancel the program of events planned to take place at the proposed site of the juvenile detention center in East Baltimore this week, despite arrests and an aggressive police presence earlier today. Tuesday’s program of events begins with breakfast at the site at 8AM, and ends with a 6PM dinner and a teach-in on Youth and the Prison Industrial Complex with Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle at 7PM. All are invited to attend.

The Schools Not Jails Occupation, in collaboration with Occupy Baltimore and the Baltimore Algebra Project, is a five-day action designed to call into question the budgeting priorities of the State of Maryland and the City of Baltimore by highlighting the unnecessary allocation of $100 million in state funds for the construction of a 180-bed youth detention facility–an amount that would cover the annual budget shortfall that threatens to close or privatize the Baltimore City Recreation Centers for 333 years.

Earlier on January 16, after a boisterous rally at the corner of Fallsway and Madison, in front of Central Booking, over 150 people marched to 600 E. Monument, where six organizers entered the enclosure and proceeded to erect a large wooden schoolhouse on the proposed site of the youth jail, and a Baltimore City high school teacher gave a lesson on Frederick Douglass. Earlier in the day, Wendell France, Commissioner of Pretrial Detention & Services at the Maryland Department of Public Safety, had told organizers that they would not be allowed onto the site of the proposed youth jail, stating safety concerns, but said that the State of Maryland’s jurisdiction ended there, and stated that he had no problem with protestors on the sidewalk outside of the site’s chain-link boundary. Baltimore City Police, however, did seem to have a problem with the Occupation’s use of the sidewalk, and brought dozens of police officers in full riot gear to create a barrier between activists and their military tent, erected on the sidewalk to provide shelter for those planning to remain at the site through the night. Police forced members of the press to leave the site, and then tore down the tent, which was taken away in a city sanitation truck. State Police then proceeded to tear down the schoolhouse that had been constructed inside the chain-link fence around the youth jail site.

Organizers say that, despite the six arrests and the loss of the tent, the first day of the action achieved their ultimate goal: calling attention to the planned construction of the youth jail, and demonstrating to the city and state governments that the residents of Baltimore City have different priorities for public spending and want to have a say in how public funds are dispersed. Organizers plan to spend the week discussing alternatives to the problems in Baltimore that the jail is intended to address, and bring proposals to the mayor’s participatory budget hearing at Cylburn Arboretum on January 21.

Video of the day’s events, as well as images, may be found at the Schools Not Jails website shortly: http://schoolsnotjails.wordpress.com | For specific photo requests, especially from the period when press were blocked from the site, please email schoolsnotjails@gmail.com.

For more information or to schedule an interview, please contact the Schools Not Jails Media Team: (410) 849-9626 | schoolsnotjails@gmail.com

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If we want the children to value the King Holiday; we must not only tell them of the Baptist preacher’s life and legacy, but we must also tell them how hard and long Black people and allies struggled to get the U.S. Government to honor him.

Enjoy the clip below.

November 2, 1983: President Reagan Approves MLK Holiday

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.

Who knows if I can still kick it, but I used to back on the school bus. In fact, a little known Black History Fact about me was that I was the Battle Rap Champ among my peers. Punch lines for days. Those days are gone, but my love for Hip Hop remains (After all, I am an 80′s baby!)

Which is why I’m anticipating the fruit of the Bmore Mixtape Project – a competition organized by Baltimore activists, scholars, and concerned citizens to use the mixtape to spread the word about important social issues. I can really see this taking off in Baltimore. We have some of the greatest artists anywhere and soon more of the city and world will know that.

Contestants are charged to rap or produce poetry around specific themes. This year the theme is the School To Prison Pipeline.

Shout out to Dr. Lester Spence for the idea and check out his book, Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip Hop and Black Politics.

Now all I need is a bangin’ track and time to get my flow together. Hey – if Dr. Cornel West can spit; you know I got to dust off my mic.

Anybody want to collab with a Pastor on a track? {straight face}

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.