Brave New Voices — I Have No Words Left
Wow. Every summer I go to Brave New Voices, the International Youth Poetry Slam Festival that I help organize with Youth Speaks. And every summer I leave more amazed than the year before. Not necessarily because the poetry is better (although this year I loved the renewed emphasis on WRITING,…
After the Verdict: No Riot, but No Leadership Either
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4k4pWkZm7ps&hl=en_US&fs=1] It’s three days after the verdict, and Oakland is quiet. People are at church, or watching the World Cup finals — which, for some people, is the same thing. The streets of downtown are eerily calm, a concrete island after the storm. Or maybe before another one arrives. I’m…
When the Verdict Comes…
Here in Oakland, we are anxiously awaiting the verdict in the trial of former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle’s murder of the unarmed Oscar Grant. The murder, which was captured on video by bystanders and seen on Youtube by millions of people, sparked massive protests and militant actions around Oakland…
Top 10 Moments from the US Social Forum
After a crazy, beautiful, and overwhelming (mostly in a good way) week in Detroit at the USSF, I’m back home in Oakland. I was blogging from the Forum for The Progressive magazine, and in my last post, I decided to put in 10 of my favorite/unexpected/hilarious moments of the week….
At the US Social Forum…with 20,000 Friends
I’m here in Detroit, with 20,000 friends, comrades, and crazy beautiful everyday people at the US Social Forum. It’s day 3 here at the Forum, I’m right now sitting in a high-energy, multilingual (with simultaneous translation provided of course!) panel discussion about cross-racial alliance building between black workers and Latino…