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What did people of the island of Brava in Cape Verde say to East Providence Mayor, Dr. Isadore Ramos, about President-Elect, Senator Barack Obama? Hear about it on the fourth and final episode of the Rhode to Africa Interview Series, replaying today and tomorrow (November 5 and 6) at 12:30 PM on WRIU - 90.3 FM or live at www.wriu.org.

KINGSTON, RI - Check out the fourth and final episode of Rhode to Africa - with the Mayor of East Providence, RI, Dr. Isadore Ramos; Donald King of The Providence Black Repertory Company and Brown University; and several members of the Brockton, MA-based reggae band, Afrika Rainbow – a group specializing in African and West Indian Rhythms. From Santiago to East Providence, and Wu-Tang to Bob Marley, I invite you take a trip down the Rhode to Africa. It airs today, Wednesday and Thursday - November 5th, and 6th - on 90.3 FM, WRIU or www.wriu.org - at 12:30 PM.

Photographed here, in the back from left to right, are Beatbox Studio co-owner and engineer, Vertygo; Afrika Rainbow band members, Baluka, Santos, and Val (and son); and East Providence, RI mayor, Dr. Isadore Ramos. In the front are Donald King of the Black Rep and Afrika Rainbow drummer, Staku.

The broadcast on radio of the Rhode to Africa Interview Series is made possible thanks to the generosity and support of WRIU, RI Foundation, RI Council for the Humanities, The Van Leesten Group, Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Firehouse no. 13, The Providence American Newspaper, RIFuture.org, Mamie Ellen’s Southern Vittles, Elea’s Restaurant, and numerous other RI businesses and organizations.

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Hey now,
If you still haven’t signed up for the Reza Rites Chirp - the yahoo group for friends, supporters and readers of the website - then you’re missing out! Check out the subjects from some of the last bulletins:

- RICKMAN OBAMA LETTER

- POEM for PRESIDENT ELECT BARACK OBAMA

- Travel to Israel/Palestine in 2009 - Be transformed

- Michael Eric Dyson: “From Homer to ‘Hova…” November 5-7 (OMA Top 10)

- Free Clinic for Artists

If you are interested, follow the instructions below to get these and other updates.

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Join the RezaRites Chirp,
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Tune in this Saturday, November 8, from 9 - 11 AM (EST) to hear me, Reza Rites doing ALL MUSIC. I’ll be dj’ing on 90.3 FM, WRIU in Kingston RI, a station you can also get online - www.wriu.org - as this Saturday’s host of “Voices of Women.” The show airs weekly on Saturday mornings since everyone needs to get in touch with their feminine side.

I’ll be playing women like Bessie Smith and Valerie Simpson; Floetry and Erykah Badu; Santogold and MIA; Adele and Sharon Jones; and much, much more.

Can you really miss this? Are you sure you don’t want to roll out of bed? Listen by tuning in to 90.3 FM, or by streaming it live online using one of the two following links: http://131.128.160.72:8000/listen.pls or http://131.128.160.72:8005/listen.pls. Or visit www.wriu.org for more info.

Sunshine and laughter,
Reza Rites

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Kenyan Author-Activist, Ngügï wa Thiong’o, joins Brown University’s Focus On Africa. For more info, contact Micah Salkind - Publicity Assistant, Africana Studies Department - at 401-863-3137.

Providence, RI – October 24, 2008 – The Africana Studies Department, Brown University is pleased to present Politics and the Novel: Conversations in Africana Writing with author and activist Ngügï wa Thiong’o and George Lamming, moderated by Anthony Bogues, Friday, November 7, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. in Salomon 101 on the Main Green (between George and Waterman Streets. Providence, RI). This historic event will bring two of the African Diaspora’s most revered novelists writing about the post-colonial moment together with one of the field’s pre-eminent cultural scholars. It is free and open to the public. For more information call 401-863-3558.

Ngügï wa Thiong’o is Kenya’s foremost author and scholar working in English and Gïküyü. Finely attuned to the political implications of language in the experiences of former colonial subjects, wa Thiong’o’s critically acclaimed work includes novels, plays, short stories, essays and scholarship, criticism and children’s literature. He is also the founder and editor of the Gïküyü-language journal, Mutiiri. Wa Thiong’o went into self-imposed exile following his release from a Kenyan prison in 1977; living in the United States, he taught at Yale University for some years, and has since also taught at New York University, where he was Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Languages, with a dual professorship in Comparative Literature and Performance Studies. Currently he is Director of the International Center for Writing and Translation the University of California, Irvine.

George Lamming entered academia in 1967 as a writer-in-residence and lecturer in the Creative Arts Centre and Department of Education at the University of the West Indies. Since then, he has been a visiting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Pennsylvania and a lecturer in Denmark, Tanzania, and Australia. He is currently a visiting professor in Brown University’s Africana Studies Department. Lamming’s first novel, In the Castle of My Skin, was published in 1953. Sandra Pouchet Paquet describes it as an “autobiographical novel of childhood and adolescence written against the anonymity and alienation from self and community the author experienced in London at the age of twenty-three.” His more recent works represent an attempt “to rediscover a history of himself by himself.”

Anthony Bogues is Professor and chair of Africana Studies and Brown’s Royce Professor of Teaching Excellence. Bogues‘s major research and writing interests are intellectual and cultural history, radical political thought and critical theory as well as Caribbean and African politics. He is the author of Caliban’s Freedom: The Early Political Thought of C.L.R. James, Black Heretics and Black Prophets: Radical Political Intellectuals, and the forthcoming Empire of Liberty: Power. Imperial Freedom and Desire. He is also the editor of two volumes on Caribbean intellectual history and has published numerous essays and articles on the history of criticism and critical theory, political thought, political philosophy and intellectual and cultural history. Bogues is an associate director of the Center for Caribbean Thought, University of the West Indies, Mona; an associate editor of the journal Small Axe and an advisory editor for the journal boundary 2. He teaches courses on Africana political philosophy, cultural politics and intellectual history.

Politics and the Novel: Conversations in Africana Writing with author and activist Ngügï wa Thiong’o and George Lamming, moderated by Anthony Bogues, takes place on Friday, November 7, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. in Salomon 101 on the Main Green (between George and Waterman Streets. Providence, RI). This program is free and open to the public. For more information call 401-863-3137.

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The Department of Africana Studies is the intellectual center for faculty and students interested in the artistic, historical, literary, and theoretical expressions of the various cultures of Africa and the African Diaspora. Located in the historic Churchill House on the campus of Brown University, the Department is dedicated to the exploration and development of new knowledges about the cultures, histories, social formations and artistic expressions of Africa and various locations that comprise the African Diaspora.

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Pictured here are Mary Smith and Harold Omisore, Executive Director and President, respectively, of Oasis International in Providence, RI. They are among the featured participants in Episode 2 of the Rhode to Africa Interview Series. Episodes 2 and 3 are now available as podcasts. Click here to play and download episode two, and here for episode 3. To hear them or subscribe via iTunes, click here.

PROVIDENCE, RI - Listen from home or work; take it with you anywhere: Episodes 2 & 3 of the Rhode to Africa Interview Series are up. In episode two, we hear from Mary Smith and Harold Omisore of Oasis International; Jean Phillipe Barros, a City Council Candidate in Pawtucket; and Olivier Varela – aka Mr. Loverman from WRIU 90.3 FM’s Cape Verdean Afro-beat show. The third episode features singer songwriter, Michelle Cruz; musician and DJ Aarin Clemons, aka Abstract Soul; and Brown University alumnus and Founding President of Heritage Revival Projects, M. Lamin Sarr.

Click here to play and download episode 2, and here for episode 3. To hear them or subscribe via iTunes, click here. The fourth and final episode of Rhode to Africa airs November 3rd, 5th and 6th at 12:30 PM on WRIU - 90.3 FM or www.wriu.org.

The Rhode to Africa Interview Series is a 4-part program produced by RezaRitesRi.com, Beatbox Studio, and Mount Hope Neighborhood Association. It’s made possible thanks to the generosity and support of RI Foundation, RI Council for the Humanities, The Van Leesten Group, The Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Firehouse no. 13, WRIU, and numerous other RI businesses and organizations.

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