RezaRitesRi.com

By Reza Corinne Clifton

Posted online with permission from She Shines(tm), a publication of YWCA Northern Rhode Island. This article appeared in the Fall 2007 edition; for more information visit www.sheshines.org.

(editor’s note: Educator and sheroe, Joan Countryman stops to smile for a photograph after a talk she delivered on education and leadership at Hope High School in Providence, RI. While Countryman deserves accolades for the students who found success under her leadership at schools in Phildadelphia and Providence, she also represents the authentic scholarly environment that Winfrey tried to create for the students that attended her school in South Africa. For those who scorned Winfrey for trying to make a difference, remember Countryman and the young girls who craved but unabashed knowledge.)

PROVIDENCE, RI - “I am because we are.” This South African expression resonated with Rhode Island’s world famous educator, Joan Countryman, the first time she heard it spoken. Nelson Mandela, the former political prisoner and first democratically-elected post-apartheid president of South Africa, said the words during an event at which he spoke right after her.

Sharing the stage with Mandela is one of Countryman’s most cherished experiences; even after she realized, she explains, that his beautiful saying, like many of the ideas he espoused, were inherently South African.

Yet hearing Countryman speak on a balmy Tuesday afternoon in June, at a special event set up by the organization Volunteers in Providence Schools (VIPS), I couldn’t help but feel that the expression also perfectly embodied the Philadelphia-bred educator. And, furthermore, that maybe, she felt it did too.

***

Countryman was raised and lived much of her adult life in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but she proudly calls RI home. RI’ers may recognize her name because of the 12 years she ran Lincoln School, a highly-acclaimed, all-girls, pre-kindergarten-12 alternative school in Providence. Boasts the website, it is the only all-girls Quaker school in the nation. Before running Lincoln, Countryman spent 23 years at a different Quaker school. It was at her grade- and high school alma mater, Germantown Friend’s School in Philadelphia.

Locally, nationally, and internationally, many will recognize Countryman’s name because of her acceptance to run what is arguably one of the most famous and well-watched schools in the world: the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls, located in South Africa.

***

Countryman is a practicing Quaker, as are members of her family. Her family’s introduction into the religion happened after sending little Joan to Germantown Friend’s School. As Countryman explains it, her father installed her there after removing her from Philadelphia public schools in the second grade. His decision was due to the fact that little Joan and her best friend were being punished for reading ahead of planned lessons.

Countryman’s father was a teacher himself, one of two African-Americans who integrated the teaching staff of Philadelphia’s public schools. It was during the 1930’s, during the years marking the economically- and socially-ravaging Depression era. He had just graduated in 1933 with a degree in Electrical Engineering from the Historically Black school, Howard University, but he was having trouble finding work.

Other members of Countryman’s family, including her children, joined the ranks of her and her father to also become teachers. She calls education “the family business.” But during her VIPS-sponsored talk at Hope High School in Providence, Countryman wondered aloud whether her family could have had a different career lineage. Why? At the time that Countryman’s father was applying for work, she recounts from his stories, the New York City Police Department and Philadelphia Schools were the only employers recruiting.

Countryman shares this thought in a comedic yet entirely serious way – a style that makes her very easy to listen to. Countryman’s presentation as a whole was presented in a grounded and digestible way. It makes me muse over what it might be like to be her student.

When she talks of school reform, for example, she summarizes her outlook in a straightforward way. “We have to believe they can do it,” she says. She later brings the audience’s attention back to the crop of students in South Africa, closing her point and reminding the audience “in ten years these girls will be 24.”

***

“There is not a magic solution to the problems in education,” Countryman says during the second-half of her presentation to the audience of traditional and nontraditional educators, VIPS volunteers, and others curious to hear about her South African adverntures, relationship to Oprah, and lessons on education . I would go further to say that there is no magic solution to any societal problem.

But as I think about all the girls and women in Philadelphia, Providence, and Johannesburg, South Africa that are because Countryman was, I can’t help but feel like maybe there is a little magic sometimes.
Reza Corinne Clifton is the publisher and editor of RezaRitesRi.com, an award-winning website highlighting ethnic, artistic, and social diversity locally (in Rhode Island) as well as nationally and globally. Her articles appear in various publications through her work as a freelance journalist, and she is also a Workforce Development Consultant for YWCA Northern Rhode Island. Reza is a member of the National Urban League Young Professionals and Vice President of the Rhode Island Young Professionals, and she is a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

By Reza Corinne Clifton

Posted online with permission from She Shines(tm), a publication of YWCA Northern Rhode Island. This article appeared in the Fall 2007 edition; for more information visit www.sheshines.org.

“Ghetto is no longer where you live; it is how you live. It is a mindset, a mindset that celebrates and embraces the worst.” – Cora Daniels, July 26, 2007 interview with R.Clifton.

“At its heart, ghetto is thinking short-term instead of long-term. Today is the most important because tomorrow doesn’t matter.” – Cora Daniels, Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless, released March 2007.

The cover of the book “Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and the Home of the Shameless.” The jacket illustration was done by Eric Bowman while the jacket design was done by T. Oliver Peabody.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - New York writer and journalist, Cora Daniels, is currently on a lecture circuit for her second and most recently-published book, Ghettonation: A Journey into the Land of Bling and Home of the Shameless. She has visited a number of large- to moderate-sized cities like LA, Atlanta, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Boston. She has or is making plans to visit community and school locations in Las Vegas, San Francisco, Newark and New York. After that, she’ll return to Boston to participate in a conference.

“Sounds like a zig zag list but I go where people invite me. I’ve been lucky. People have responded well to the message of Ghettonation and are eager to talk about these issues.”

Daniels is right. At the Boston talk at Northeastern University, hosted by the Young Professionals Network of Eastern Massachusetts, audience members were eager to engage and ask thought-provoking questions of Daniels, about both her book and her ideas on community empowerment in general. But Daniels isn’t surprised.

She talks in the book about how easy it was to acquire interviews just by mentioning the title of the book or the word ghetto. And even though Daniels wrote Ghettonation because, “as a Black woman,” she was “tired of it all,” it wasn’t an exclusive set of ethnicities, income-earners, or marginalized society members that responded to Daniels recruitment efforts or against whom Daniels was reacting.

As a matter of fact, one of the observations that compelled Daniels to write the book was seeing America’s wealthy, white, flawed-yet-beloved princess – Paris Hilton - subtly appropriate the adjective use of “ghetto.” It was during her Fox network show, “A Simple Life,” and it was particularly shocking to Daniels because of Hilton’s almost cartoon-like distance from the physical ghetto.

That book’s theme of universality is present in chapter 6, where Daniels brilliantly takes a menagerie of musical lyrics from a variety of different artists, and weaves them together to offer a startling and poignant close-up of the hateful and socially depredating messages in contemporary music. And while it probably won’t astonish everyone that much of the material comes from big-name hip hop artists, what is shocking is the inclusion of artists generally thought of as being family-friendly musicians or appropriate role-models with mainstream appeal; artists like Beyonce, the Black Eyed Peas, and Britney Spears (at least earlier in her career).

“I purposely chose lyrics from songs and groups that are very popular and mainstream to illustrate just how widespread and low the bar had gotten. It is too easy to just blame this on the 50 Cents of the world,” Daniels explains, referring to the musician that currently serves as the poster-boy of hip hop violence.

Daniels lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and daughter.

Before writing Ghettonation, Daniels published a book called Black Power Inc., about the rise of Blacks in Corporate America in the post-Civil Rights-era. She developed it after a series she wrote for one of her former publishers, Fortune Magazine. Next she wrote Ghettonation, while a third and fourth book are in the works, she reports.

As a writer, pop culture observer, and student of African-American history, I am drawn to the writing of Daniels. With her easy-to-read writing style, and carefully selected references, I was thoroughly satisfied in making Ghettonation an addition to my personal library. But anyone paying attention to – or actively trying to ignore – what they’re seeing in mainstream culture might take a moment to look at it as well.

Cora Daniels is an award-winning journalist who lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and daughter. For more about her and her books Black Power Inc. and Ghettonation visit www.coradaniels.com, www.doubleday.com, or www.blackinkbooks.com.

Reza Corinne Clifton is the publisher and editor of RezaRitesRi.com, an award-winning website highlighting ethnic, artistic, and social diversity locally (in Rhode Island) as well as nationally and globally. She also works as a freelance journalist and as a Workforce Development Consultant for YWCA Northern Rhode Island. Reza is a member of the National Urban League Young Professionals and Vice President of the Rhode Island Young Professionals, and she is also a member of the National Association of Black Journalists.

by Reza Corinne Clifton

PROVIDENCE, RI - Last night, I won’t share what time, I listened to the Thursday, October 4 edition of NPR’s News and Notes, a show by Farai Chideya with audio available on I-tunes as well as the site for National Public Radio. One of the segments - “What’s Next for Civil Rights Movement?” - featured a feisty debate between the NAACP’s Julian Bond and writer, activist, and original MTV Real World cast member, Kevin Powell, about how and when the Civil Rights leadership torch moves from the generations most associated with the protest of the 60’s to the generations born during or after the Black Power era and associated with the rise of Hip Hop. Is it passed on, as Powell demands, or does it have to be taken by the next generation, as Bond recalls of his own rise.

Powell is 40-something, from Brooklyn, and he’s tired of waiting for room to be made in traditional Civil Rights Organizations for he and his ilk. Leana Cabral, a locally-bred twenty-something, isn’t willing to wait any longer either. Take a look below at the afro-feminist letter/article that she and co-author Moya Bailey addressed to BET CEO Debra Lee. Naming names and refusing to stand by the “indefensible,” as well as briefly higlighting their own activism and leadership, Cabral and Bailey, to Bond’s point, not only send a message to Lee, but they also position themselves closer to the larceny of the very power she now yields.

To hear the News and Notes segment with Bonds and Powell, visit www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14991874. To learn more about Lee, read the article entitled “Women of Influence” in the October issue of Essence Magazine - currently on news stands now.

by Moya Bailey and Leana Cabral

(Hey Reza,
How are you? I hope this finds you well. I wanted to share with you a letter my sister and her friend from Spelman drafted to BET’s CEO this week in response to the hip hop v. america forum on BET. The letter will be featured in the Atlanta Daily Newspaper this week, hopefully Essence magazine and other publications and circulated in feminist and hip hop listserves. If you’d like to post it on your site or can think of another place that could help us spread this message that would be great! I’ve pasted their letter below…. Peace! Nuala)

October 3, 2007

Dear Debra Lee:

As two of the so called “Nelly Protesters,” we feel compelled to speak after the egregious presentation of “Hip Hop vs. America” on BET. Though purportedly trying to redress the sexism, misogyny, and materialism of hip hop videos, the program actually reified all of these by not engaging with feminist women panelists, or panelists that did not invoke a kind of celebrity worship. Once again the voices of young black women were marginalized in preference for a largely older black male voice of authority. Even the women panelists who were present were talked over and addressed less.

It was very disheartening to hear Nelly completely misrepresent the events leading up to the so called Nelly Protest. Upon hearing about Nelly’s desire to do a bone marrow drive on campus, the Spelman Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance placed signs on campus calling attention to his misogynistic lyrical and video content. Apparently, the foundation had been to campus earlier that week and seen the signs that the FMLA put up all over campus. They scheduled an emergency meeting with the Spelman Student Government Association and requested that no protesters be at the drive. SGA could not provide this kind of guarantee. The foundation then left the room so that SGA could vote on whether or not the drive could continue if, at the foundation’s request, Nelly agreed to participate in a forum to address student concerns. Despite a unanimous vote to continue with the drive under the new stipulations, when the foundation came back they had already decided to cancel the drive. Our intention was to do exactly what Nelly stated on the program. We planned to have him come to campus and meet with a small group of concerned students, something he was unwilling to do. Not only that, we still had a bone marrow drive and all the students initially involved registered to donate bone marrow! The foundation was apparently so upset about this issue that THEY went to the press, saying that Spelman canceled the drive because of the video “Tip Drill.”

Aside from this factual error, both Nelly and T. I. continued to skirt the issue of their own responsibility. Yes, America is racist and sexist. Yes, America is materialistic but that doesn’t make it right! That doesn’t mean that we as black women should have to negotiate a world that has historically portrayed us to be less than human and continues to do so in a genre that should counter that stereotype.

We aren’t asking for “positive” images as we know that this does not necessarily ensure representations that reflect the multitude of ways black womanhood is embodied. But why is it that the only way T. I. and Nelly can talk about or depict us are bitches and hos? How does framing the conversation as though they are not talking about us make it ok? If you are talking about any women in a derogatory way it’s a problem.

We understand that to some extent, rappers are the puppets and ideological whipping boys of a largely untargeted white capitalist power structure. We know that Philippe Dauman of Viacom, Doug Morris of Universal Music Group, and Rolf Schmidt-Holtz of Sony/BMG names aren’t often mentioned when we discuss the problematic state of rap music though we do realize and wish to hold them accountable for their own culpability in all of this. Unfortunately Nelly and T.I. missed an opportunity to recognize their own role in supporting and perpetuating misogyny in hip hop on the program. Their role may be that of individuals, but it is still crucially important. It is absurd for these artists not to recognize their complicity. Seduced by financial incentives, these artists are participating in the production and distribution of these images at the expense of all black people.

These images and lyrics, that suggest that black women are only hypersexual objects for male enjoyment are broadcast globally and are the primary images and representations of African-American women that people see. It reinforces stereotypes that white Europeans had about black women since we were “discovered” on the shores of Africa. Black men are portrayed as violent, brutal, equally hypersexual, and materialistic. It suggests that we have no hopes no dreams outside material gains and sex.

It makes it seem as though black musicians can’t rhyme about anything other than sex, money, and violence. We are tired of trying to defend hip hop when it becomes indefensible. We are tired of hearing music that assaults our very humanity. We are tired of hearing girls complain about being assaulted in clubs, or by partners, or strangers, of being called bitches and hos, of being cursed out because we didn’t want to give someone a number, of trying to reason with record companies and artists and convince them their actions impact the daily lives of black women in this country and abroad.

Now we find it is no longer a racially unifying act of resistance to challenge these images within the black community, but rather a divisive battle that pits black men against black women, artists and cultural critics, etc. The very title of the program “Hip Hop vs. America” presented a different agenda and encouraged this division which contributed to the defensive manner of some of the panelists. Spaces for unifying conversations and healing must be generated, where perspectives from women are equally honored and respected. Panelists who can speak to that sort of nuanced and complex conversation were not present. What about hip hop scholars Joan Morgan or Tricia Rose, MC and hip hop activist Toni Blackman, self-proclaimed feminist men Byron Hurt and Mark Anthony Neal?

We speak out because once again our actions were silenced and misread. We speak out because once again we are talked about instead of being included in the conversation. We speak out so that we can say we did, even if no one is listening.

Sincerely,
Moya Bailey and Leana Cabral
Moya.Leana@gmail.com

Greetings,

I just wanted to post an update about new material on my site, RezaRitesRi.com. If you’re not checking in once or twice or a week, then you really might be missing out. For instance, I had a new guest contributor to the site, Ghislaine Jean-Mahone, who also received an award recently (in Rhode Island). Read her article entitled “In House Sits Down with Sinbad” to read her interview with the well-known comedian, and read about the award she received – “Popular Performance Artist and Educator Wins 2007 Women of Achievement Award in RI .”

(Jean-Mahone is pictured here with celebrated RI photographer Keith Briggs.)

But I’ve got more than just local news on there. In the article, “Love for Humanity and Self-Awareness Takes Female Reggae Artist to the Top,” you can read about Jamaican Reggae artist Queen Ifrica, who’s been riding waves of success lately with a number one song in Jamaica and during well-received performances all over the world. And if you don’t just want to read about Queen Ifrica, you can hear from her by listening to the most recent podcast posted to the new page on the site: PODCASTS - video/audio – “Top Female Reggae Artist Talks Race, Rastas, and Revolutions.” Just click on one of the photos of Queen Ifrica to hear the material. It’s the first in a series of pieces from conversations I had with the star during her visit to Rhode Island when she performed in the Providence music festival, Sound Session 2007.

(Queen Ifrica, pictured here in the foreground, performed in Providence on July 17 as the headlining performer at Sound Session, the annual, “genre-defying” Pan-African music festival.)

I’ve updated the photos page (Recent Photos) as well as the Listings pages, where I post the weekly “E-News” sent out by the Rhode Island Young Professionals and in the Events “From Reza Rites” page where, for instance, I recently added details about the National Association of Black Journalists conference I’m attending October 19-21 in Washington, D.C. I even updated the podcast I posted of my interview with Reverend Al Sharpton – to include more remarks than what I what I had originally posted a few weeks ago.

(Reverend Al Sharpton is pictured here alongside others who participated in the July 2007 National Urban League Conference in St. Louis Missouri)

I do want to wind down since I did not intend for this update to be so long. But one last update to share with you is that I have officially begun “blogging,” highlighting, and writing shorter editorials in reaction to other news stories and sources. This is my way of, hopefully, better serving you, the reader and website visitor. It’s intended to link you to the publications, websites, radio shows, etc. that keep me informed, fascinated, or inspired without you having to wait for me to process the information into an article. It’s also my way of highlighting issues that I know are important to you, and, hopefully, to bring you back to the site more often. Two of the “blogs” I’ve written are “Two Protests, One update “ about news stories on the Antiwar protest in Washington DC and the Justice March in Jena, Louisiana, and “I Didn’t Attend Oprah’s Party for Obama: Reflections,” about my reactions to the fundraiser for the presidential hopeful.

(Presidential hopeful and Illinois senator Barack Obama visited Rhode Island last October during a visit to support later-elected Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.)

As you can see, there’s a lot going on and it’s easy to miss some of the information posted and published before. Don’t forget my September 6 post, Take Control, Hear Your Voice on RI Radio about your chance to be on National Public Radio in RI, and don’t forget that thanks to the article by Marco McWilliams, “Dreaming Black Unity for 6 Louisiana Youth” - also posted September 6 - RezaRitesRi readers were informed of the issues in Jena well in advance of the protests.

(No no, I’m not running NPR…yet, but you can, well sort of. Participants are being sought out for “This I Believe - Rhode Island” at WRNI - RI’s only NPR station. This I Believe is an NPR series designed to broadcast the views and opinions of everyday listeners.)

I thank you for your support, as someone who reads or forwards these emails, as someone who regularly checks out the site, as someone who’s given me encouragement, support, love, and time, and as someone who may be out there right now sending good energy my way.

Sunshine and Laughter

Reza Rites

–
Reza Corinne Clifton
Online Publisher and Freelance Journalist

www.RezaRitesRi.com

www.riyp.org
www.nabj.org
www.sheshines.org

By Reza Corinne Clifton

(Queen Ifrica stops to consider a note, melody, harmony, accompaniment, rhythm…during a rehearsal in Boston the night before her July 17 headlining performance at Sound Session, the annual, “genre-defying” Pan-African music festival that takes place in “downcity” Providence. The event is a collaboration between the Providence Black Repertory Company, the City of Providence and the Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism, and many other corporate, community, and media participants.)

KINGSTON, JAMAICA - Jamaican Reggae singer and “dj” Ventrice Morgan, aka Queen Ifrica, is the daughter of a well-known Jamaican musician and a Rastafarian who lives “in the deep hills in Jamaica.” These influences are clear in Ifrica’s music; yet her voice and her essence are distinctly hers. And these are qualities that have been well-received lately.

Queen Ifrica has been touring for months now, to hungry and appreciative crowds internationally - from Holland to Chicago; Canada to France; Jamaica to Rhode Island. Another sign of her talent and success, though, was her feat making it to number one last month on various Jamaican charts for her song, “Below the Waist,” a tune speaking to overcoming the hardships of marriage and relationships. According to representatives from her label, Flames Production, the versatile artist has two other songs “rotating [through] the airwaves in Jamaica” including “Mi Nah Rub” about the pervasive practice and physical risks associated with bleaching ones skin as done in Jamaica, Africa, and even countries like Thailand and India. The other song making its rounds and leaving its impact, “Daddy Don’t Touch Me” is about incest and abuse, explained Flames representatives “speaking to fundamental issues of human rights and children’s rights.”

Queen Ifrica is explicit about the purpose of her music being to present a Pan-African form of upliftment for the impoverished and forgotten and to nurture youth, but these things are just as important in her non-musical life too. In spite of her hectic touring schedule, Queen Ifrica is very dedicated and very connected to her two children and to her extended family who, she says, plays a large role in caring for her children when she is away. But Queen Ifrica’s dedication doesn’t stop there. She, along with the founder of and fellow members of Flames Production – singer and producer Tony Rebel, Luciano, and Amuta Baruka respectively – is also part of a group called Committee for Community, an organization that works with gangs in the various garrison (Jamaican term for a ghetto or impoverished neighborhood) communities in the hopes of achieving ceasefires and peace as well as holding special dinners, providing free concerts and fundraising on their behalf.

It doesn’t just sound like it; Queen Ifrica confirms it during a quick chat on the first of October, during a break in her schedule. She is a busy woman that is not letting a hit song slow her down. On the contrary, performance-wise she will be working right through the next few weeks, months and holidays. Luckily for her children, most of those shows will be right there in Jamaica, where on “weekends” and when they’re not in school, she emphasizes, they’ll be able to join her at the shows. Curefest, for instance, happens October 12-14, and features dozens of big name reggae artists - including Sizzla, Morgan Heritage, Lady Saw, Capleton, Barrington Levy, Ce’Cile, Beenie Man, and Queen Ifrica – who’ll be celebrating the musical success and recent release from prison of Jah Cure. She’ll also perform at the Heroes Reggae Splash in St. Ann, Jamaica on October 14, the Millenium Count Down 7 in Nassau, Bahamas on November 3 and Sting -Jamworld, in Portmore, Jamaica on December 26, 2007.

With an erudite essence comparable to that seen in film and interview footage of the late, melodic reggae leader Bob Marley, lyrics that speak globally about humanity and justice, and rhythms and production with genuine Jamaican movement and harmony, Queen Ifrica – in music and in life – is living up to the royalty inscribed in her performance name.

Christmas in Jamaica anyone? It doesn’t sound like a bad idea, does it?

***

(Queen Ifrica, pictured here fifth in from the left in a white dress and black head-wrap, poses alongside members of the boston-based band, Zili Misik. Their combined energy and musical talent impressed many who attended the Caribbean-themed Tuesday night of Sound Session 07. Aside from the rehearsal the night before, the Sound Session show was Queen Ifrica and Zili Misik’s first performance together.)

PROVIDENCE, RI - I had a chance to talk for an extended period with this immensely talented yet refreshingly humble star over the summer, during a stop she made in Providence in between attending reggae festivals in Canada, in Montreal (The Montreal Reggae Festival) and in Toronto (Caribana). During Sound Session 07, Queen Ifrica performed at the Providence Black Repertory Company as the headlining act alongside the Boston-based band, Zilik Misik, a multicultural, all-female, powerhouse group, that plays pan-Caribbean and international melodies and rhythms. Click here or visit the Podcasts page to listen to an audio podcast of the first in a series of excerpts from our conversations, dealing with topics from Rastas to revolutions, from performances to politics, and from violence to vegetarianism. Click here to link to the photos page to see photos from the July 17 performance at Black Rep and from the Queen Ifrica-Zili Misik rehearsal night. Click here to link to a page showing search results for other RezaRitesRi articles about Sound Session.

Additional never-before heard interview clips will be aired on Blade Connex Radio, a program playing “Reggae Classics and Dancehall Vibez” Saturdays from 11-2 on WRIU 90.3 FM out of the University of RI or streaming live on www.WRIU.org. Tracks off of Queen Ifrica’s debut album, Fyah Muma can also be heard on Blade Connex Radio as well as from 4:30-7:00 on Saturdays and 2:00-5:00 on Sundays on Top Rank Radio with DJ Baby Matt and Reggae Showcase with Peter Dante, respectively. Other radio stations airing reggae shows in and around RI include WERS 88.9 FM (Emerson College -www.wers.org) and WUMD 89.3 FM (UMASS Dartmouth - www.893wumd.org).

To learn more or link up to Queen Ifrica visit www.myspace.com/queenifrica, and to learn more about Zili Misik, visit www.myspace.com/zilimisik. To read a review of her CD visit www.bigupradio.com/ReviewsDetail.jsp?rid=102. For more information about Blade Connex Radio visit www.myspace.com/blademon.