Caught between her parents' dreams and a life-changing offer, 16-year-old Ayesha Minor must decide whether to conform or chase her musical destiny.

"A-Minor" has received recognition from the industry. It was selected for the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival and won an honorable mention at the Women's Film Festival for Best Narrative Short. These accolades speak to the film's quality and its ability to connect with audiences on a profound level.


jrstrickland.com

nocturnalfx.com





For additional information, or to feature "A-Minor" in any capacity, please feel free to contact jr@jrstrickland.com or by phone at 818.850.91324.

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With the death toll from the Maui wildfires at 111 and as many as 1,000 still missing, we speak with Hawaiian law professor Kapuaʻala Sproat about the conditions that made the fires more destructive and what's yet to come for residents looking to rebuild their lives. Decades of neocolonialism in Hawaii have redirected precious water resources toward golf courses, resorts and other corporate ventures, turning many areas into tinderboxes and leaving little water to fight back against the flames. Now many Hawaiians say there is a power grab underway as real estate interests and other wealthy outsiders look to buy up land and water rights on the cheap as people are still reeling from the loss of their family members, livelihoods and communities. "Plantation disaster capitalism is, unfortunately, the perfect term for what's going on," says Sproat, who just published a piece in The Guardian with Naomi Klein and is professor of law at Ka Huli Ao Native Hawaiian Law Center and co-director of the Native Hawaiian Rights Clinic at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa School of Law. "The plantations, the large landed interests that have had control over not just the land, but really much of Hawaii's and Maui Komohana's resources for the last several centuries, are using this opportunity, are using this time of tremendous trauma for the people of Maui, to swoop in and to get past the law."

Transcript: democracynow.org

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Stop University of Chichester’s axing of the MRes History of Africa & the African Diaspora
https://chng.it/mBGrcsyQ

Other useful links:
https://www.historymatters.online
https://www.hakimadi.org/

The Black Secret needs the support of the community to help with a very important cause which is dear to their hearts. A revered academic and friend of the founders of The Black Secret, Professor Hakim Adi and his first of a kind History course are under threat of permanent closure. Professor Hakim is the first African Heritage Professor of History in the UK. At Chichester University in 2015 he created the Masters by Research ( MRes ) and PHD courses in ‘History of Africa and the African Diaspora’, of which he is both the Tutor and Thesis Supervisor of both programs.

In July 2023 Chichester University announced it was closing the MRes course and ending Professor Hakim Adi’s employment. This decision was made without any consultant with either Professor Adi or his students. The MRes course is the first and only Master’s course in the UK specifically focused on the subject of African History and the African Diaspora.

A campaign was quickly launched to raise awareness and to resist Chichester University’s discriminatory actions, with an aim to restore the MRes course and to reinstate Professor Adi to his post.

The Black Secret met Professor Hakim at his home to interview him about what was happening with Chichester University and the campaign to save the MRes course. They spent a good hour interviewing Professor Hakim, covering the importance of saving the MRes program, the benefits that having such a course has contributed to the research of African History in the Diaspora.

This is the edit version focused on the campaign itself

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Black British Civil Rights leader, writer, history maker, co-founder of 'Race Today Collective' honoured with a Nubian Jak plaque

On 4th January 2022, we unveiled an historic blue plaque. The plaque was produced by Nubian Jak and sponsored by Black History Walks. It was unveiled at 167 Railton Road, Brixton, presently home to the Brixton Advice Centre, in the 1970s the building was the office of the Race Today Collective.

Darcus Howe was a key figure in many major movements from; the Black Panthers, to the Mangrove 9, to Bangladeshi housing, the Black Peoples Day of Action, the Brixton uprisings, changing the face of British TV with the Bandung File, Devils Advocate and the Race Today Collective.

Between 1973-88, the ground-breaking Race Today journal was at the epicentre of the struggle for racial justice in Britain, highlighting the limitless opportunities and impacts campaigning journalism can have.

With the struggle against police racism and brutality currently happening across the world, it is vital that young activists learn about the recent history of Black Radicalism in Britain, including the Black Radical press, in order to harness the revolutionary potential of the media in the fight for racial justice.

Between 1973 and 1988, the Race Today journal and its collective of writers passionately fought police brutality, challenged racist institutions and, by adopting intersectional politics, linked the experiences of Black communities in Britain with other struggles to illustrate the interconnectedness of race, sex and class exploitation.

Under the controversial editorship of activist and former Black Panther Darcus Howe and, from 1985, his wife Leila Hassan, Race Today became a central voice for the anti-racist Black community in London.

For full article by Bryan Knight in Novara Media use this link https://novaramedia.com/2020/07/10/black-britannia-the-race-today-collective-demonstrated-the-radical-potential-of-journalism/

Agenda and timings

12pm DJ with Darcus favourite music. 12.30pm Short addresses from Leila Hassan-Howe, Nubian Jak, Aykaaya Addai-Sebo, Henry Bonsu and others. 1pm plaque unveiling, press and networking.

4th January is also CLR James ( author of the Black Jacobins) birthday.

To see our collection of lectures on Darcus Howe visit https://www.youtube.com/user/blackhistorywalks/videos

Details at www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk

Watch out for our book 'Black History Walks in London Volume 1'. This is part of Jacaranda Books revolutionary Twenty in 2020 initiative to publish 20 books by 20 Black British authors in 2020. An unprecedented feat. 'Black History Walks in London Volume 1' is the 20th of that series but was delayed to this year due to the Coronavirus.

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Premiered Jul 14, 2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered #BlackStarNetwork #BringTheFunk
According to the CDC, 85-percent of Black adults and 94-percent of Black youth who smoke use menthol products.

For years, those products have been marketed to communities of color.

These practices have led to Black Americans dying disproportionately from heart attacks, lung cancer, strokes, and other tobacco-related diseases.

Mignonne Guy, the Chair of the Department of African American Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, is joining me now to discuss big tobacco's long history of targeting Black communities with menthol cigarettes and the health impact.

Join this channel to get access to perks:


/ @rolandsmartin

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#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research

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Testimonies to Sybil Phoenix, the first Black woman to be awarded an MBE in Britain and driving force behind the legendary Moonshot youth club.

This session hears from some of the many people she helped and worked with speaking on her impact and legacy.

This event was organised by Mia Morris OBE and Guyana Speaks with the support of Black History Walks

Here is a sample of some of the history we cover:

Dame Sybil Theodora Phoenix DBE, MBE (born Sybil Marshall, 21 June 1927) is a British community worker. She was born in British Guiana (Guyana), and grew up in Georgetown. She and her fiancé Joe Phoenix moved to England in 1956, and married in June of that year. In 1973 she became the first black woman to receive an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) from Queen Elizabeth II. Dame Phoenix initially refused to accept the honor unless the council gave her a property where she could house, feed and educate homeless young girls from the Borough of Lewisham.

Dame Phoenix is a legendary figure in her adopted home of Lewishan in South East London. It has been said of her: “Sybil has a tremendous capacity for loving in the face of hatred, rejection and discrimination”. In the early 1960s, she began providing foster care for unwanted children and in 1977 she founded a youth center for teenagers; named Moonshot. However, the center was burned down by members of the right-wing extremist “National Front” and Dame Pheonix vowed to rebuild. “My name is Phoenix and I will build a new center from the ashes of this club, so help me God.” she said. Four years later, in 1981, the Prince of Wales was present for the grand opening of the new center.

As a Black person, Dame Phoenix experienced racism from the very beginning. This motivated her to actively work against the kind of discrimination that people suffer solely because of the color of their skin. She co-founded of MELRAW (Methodist and Ecumenical Leadership Racism Awareness Workshops), an organization which offers Racism Awareness Training programs. She was also a leader in the New Cross Fire campaign and the post Brixton negotiations and the famous Black Peoples Day of Action.

In 1979 Dame Phoenix and her husband founded the Marsha Phoenix Memorial Trust, a supported housing project for single homeless young women aged from 16 to 24. The trust was named in honor of her daughter who died in a car accident in 1974.

Thanks to Guyanese Girls Rock for this article

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The Casey report of 2023 revealed the Metropolitan Police to be racist and sexist. In this segment the author Louise Casey explains why.

The report was triggered by police officer Wayne Couzens who raped and killed Sarah Everard in 2021

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For those interested in Harry Belafonte's legendary history this is the film to watch

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