Sean Bell & Lyrics on Lockdown

Some of you know that I have been participating in a class this year that uses poetry, hip hop and spoken word to create critical literacy. This semester we have been working with high school students that are locked up on Rikers Island. This Friday, we are scheduled to have a release party for the anthology of student writing and lesson plans from the last four years of Lyrics on Lockdown. We originally planned to just perform poetry but with Sean Bell's murderers acquitted on all counts, we feel that we need to address this and use Friday as an opportunity to organize. Folks have been throwing out a lot of ideas and if anyone knows about other folks organizing a response please let me know and I will post it here and pass the word along.

So far, I have heard that Reverend Al Sharpton is organizing a march, Kevin Powell is organizing folks in Brooklyn. Also, this event sounds pretty dope and I will definitely be there whether I perform or not:

WE WANT 50 ARTISTS FOR 50 SHOTS - A CALL OUT TO ALL POETS, MCS, DANCERS, PAINTERS & MUSICIANS TO RESPOND TO THE OUTCOME OF THE SEAN BELL VERDICT.

***please forward this far and wide***

When: Saturday May 3rd, 2008

Time: 7 PM sharp - 10 PM

Where: The Brecht Forum

451 West Street (near West Side Highway)

*This will be a Free Event and All Performances are Voluntary. First come bases, once we have all 50 Artists the list will end.

***If you are interested please submit your name, contact info and a brief description of the work you would like to perform to mahinamovement@yahoo.com or call Gabreilla Calleder: 917-325-1699

That's all I have for now, I will post more information as it becomes available.

They're In!

My promo cards came in and I will be spending my Saturday night addressing them all. So if you would like your very own copy shipped right to your door step, send your snail mail address to amorganphoto(at)mac(dot)com

P.S. Use that address for spam or forwards or anything unrelated to photo and I will put a curse on both your houses.

Are You White? Do You Love Black People? Ever Wonder if They Love You?

I am in the middle of writing my memoir and am doing some fact checking, which just caused me to stumble upon this: blackpeopleloveus.com. I had to post it because it is possibly the best website since rent-a-negro.com

Enjoy.

So many things!

First of all, this Saturday and Sunday I will be a part of:


Zami Like Me: Queer Womyn of Color CipHER

Celebrating HER and all of her she'ness.

Does our sexual or racial identity compel an activist intersection with such a horrifying status quo or not? Is it sexual or racial identity that will catapult each of us into creative agency for social change? I would say, I hope so. – June Jordan

Put on by The CipHER Project and co-sponsored by the New School Women of Color Organization and OPEN, the gay/straight alliance at The New School, Zami Like Me is a social, political, activist, artistic, educational and entertainment two day event that will serve lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender, non-conforming, and two-spirited women of color and allies in celebration of our multiple identities, works and talents. It will be a two day women's cipHER, a sharing space of skill, wit, talent and gifts that will run full circle, 360 degrees, with love and support. In reaching out to the New School community as well as the outside community, I hope to bring in artists (in many forms) and academics, youth and elders, to join in this two-day event to educate and learn about the issues that are prevalent to these women. This event will be on Saturday, April 19th and Sunday, April 20th.

[Please join us Saturday April 19 from 5:30-9 pm and Sunday April 20 from 6-9pm.]



SATURDAY, APRIL 19 5:30-9PM

3 FILM SCREENINGS:

black.womyn.:conversations with lesbians of african descent by tiona.m.

I Look Up to the Sky Now, created by Barbara M. Bickart and 11 young queer activists.

Like a Boy, Like a Girl by Ash. S. Tai and Cleopatra N. LaMothe

FOLLOWED BY 3 SMALL CIPHERS AND THEN 1 LARGER CIPHER LED BY KAILA A. STORY, AUDRE LORDE CHAIR AND ASST. PROFESSOR AT LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.


SUNDAY, APRIL 20 6-9PM

ART EXHIBITION BY LGBTQTS WOMYN AND ALLIES!

LIVE PERFORMANCES!

LIVE ART BY THE AGYTATORS! Come get your photo taken by the Agytators -who have been featured in various media such as Ladies Lotto, Scheme magazine, and worked with famous photographer Kareem Black!
$5 to $10 suggested donation will be requested at the door. All proceeds are going to the Audre Lorde Project and the Youth Enrichment Services (YES) at the LGBTQ Center. NO ONE WILL BE TURNED AWAY BECAUSE OF MONEY. There will also be a raffle for a gift bag of goodies!

File these under events not starring me, but still badass:

"On Friday, The Cotton Ponys will be joining a whole bunch of feminist lady performers that will be playing music and acting and maybe balancing things on their heads or catching things in their vagina in support of ladies around the world. Please note: we will be playing 60% of our show for the ladies and 40% for the baby seals. We won't tell you which part is for ladies and which part is for the baby seals but you might get the hint when we start throwing dead fish into the audience. But remember, friends, it's only a metaphor.
Please come support the battle against dry skin and dead baby seals. There will be women there!"
FRIDAY, 4/18
We play at 7:45, Don't Be Late!
ABC No Rio (156 Rivington btw Suffolk + Clinton)
F Train to Second Ave.
5 Dollars.
The Ever-Improving Official Fan Site
Feminist Event Website
Hot Pics of the Performers Found Here

PRATT INSTITUTE TO HOST ACTIVIST, WRITER, PHILOSOPHER, AND TEACHER ANGELA DAVIS AS SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE ON TUESDAY, APRIL 22 AND WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23

Pratt Institute will host activist, writer, philosopher, and teacher Angela Davis as Scholar in Residence for Spring 2008 on Tuesday, April 22 and Wednesday, April 23. As part of her residency, Davis will participate in a series of events that are free and open to the public. Davis will give a keynote address titled “Identifying Racism in the Era of Neoliberalism” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22 following a 5 p.m. screening of The Farm: Angola. On April 23 Davis will participate in roundtable discussion “Urban Artists and the Politics of Visibility” with New York-based artists Dread Scott, Hank Willis Thomas, Alain “KET” Maridueña, and Amy Sananman. All events are to be held in Memorial Auditorium on Pratt’s Brooklyn Campus. Davis was associated with the Blank Panther Party and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Educated at the Frankfurt School, Davis first came to national attention when she was placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Ten Most Wanted List on false charges, driven underground, arrested, and incarcerated for 16 months. While in prison, she wrote brilliant articles and became the focus of the international solidarity movement —the “Free Angela Davis” campaign—
which brought about her acquittal. Davis ran for U.S. Vice President under the Communist Party ticket in 1980, and in 1997 helped found Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to dismantling the prison-industrial complex. Today, she holds the University of California Presidential Chair in African American and Feminist Studies in the History of Consciousness Department at the Santa Cruz campus. She is the author of eight acclaimed books, including The Autobiography of Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?, and AbolitionDemocracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture. Her residency is sponsored by the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences; the Department of English and Humanities; and the Initiative for Art, Community, and Social Change with support from the Office of the Provost, the Critical and Visual Studies Program, and the Pratt Film Society.

phew. (or you get what you pay for)

I went to my site just now to discover that only random parts of it are loading,(apparently too many people were trying to access it, which figures since I handed out so many business cards this weekend) so I called godaddy and upgraded my hosting account. Now everything seems to be going swimmingly - except for that hideous banner which indicates (falsely) that I am still hosting my site for free. Ah, well. One thing at a time.

It's up!

www.amandamorgan.com

Now if only I could figure out how to get rid of that ugly ad on top - I just don't have time to call godaddy again right now. I'm off to the Race Sex Power conference in Chicago!

weekend wrap up

art as interruption in public space, art as resistance



friendship and the many uses of a hanger





oh yeah, and I am one year older

(last photo by Mik)

I Heart Drag

Congratulations to Mik (above photo by Marisa Manning - thank you Marisa!) for making his stunning NYC debut at Outpost Lounge. (Which is also the venue for Translimbo, another wonderfully queer and creative event that happens tonight and the first Thursday of every month.)
And big up to Switch N' Play for putting it down as well and hosting the event.


A good time was had by all. For those of you who missed out, never fear there will be many more opportunities to partake. We didn't invite everyone because it was Mik's first NYC performance and all, but now that he has rediscovered his fabulousness, you can look forward to having your inboxes flooded.

And in completely unrelated news this is just funnyGrammie and Mik share a moment...