RBG Street Scholar's blog on imeem

RBG Blakademics 2009 Revolutionary EducationArt Work / Posters

RBG Street Scholar — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:09:05 -0000

BE SURE TO CHECK OUT RBGz OTHER IMEEM CHANNEL AS WELL
http://www.imeem.com/rbg4lifstreetscholar

Martin Malcolm and America A Dream or A Nightmare - RBGStreet Scholar

RBG On Web 2.0 Education & Social Networking

RBG Street Scholar — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 15:42:29 -0000

The purpose of this brief guide is to help the learner/teacher overstand what one should look for in reading, listening to, viewing and critically analyzing the audio, video, pictorial and textural contents of RBG's curricula. We mean for you to pay particular attention to the interaction between images, lyrics, rhythms and spoken word.

In keeping with the spirit of Sankofa ("return and get it" a West African Symbol of Adinkra Wisdom
representing the importance of our learning from the past) you should keep in mind that in the societies of our Afrikan ancestors and current kinsman the oral tradition was / is the method of choice in which history, stories, folktales and spiritual beliefs were /are passed on from generation to generation. Webster's dictionary defines "oral" as,
"spoken rather than written," and it defines the word "tradition" as, "transmittal of elements of a culture from one generation to another especially by oral communication." It is the power of the Afrikan oral tradition integrated with written documentation that lays at the core of our trailblazing teaching / learning methodology.

Your studies, analysis and evaluations should constantly ask and answer “what a given classroom / subject / topic’s content is intending to elucidate (explain) — (ie. elements and aspects of oppression or liberation); and always why and how. RBG Street Scholars Think Tank is essentially a concentricly integrated articulation of and defense for a radically progressive New Afrikan educational process. With strict attention to developing our student’s basic education skills in the context of the highest standards of academic excellence, suitable for one to confidently sit for high stake exams, we simultaneously advance the psycho-emotional healing and spiritual upliftment of our people by providing knowledge, wisdom and overstanding of the historo-cultural, socio-political and psycho-educational experiences of Africans in America in a way that
radically reappraises education from the pained and angry perspective of the oppressed black community.

The content and methods of our school are meant to demonstrates how the mediums of Afrikan American music, spoken word and images have been/ are used to create incarcerated minds, bodies and spirits; and thus in turn, how they can as well be used to foster physical, mental and spiritual liberation.

Historically (particularly over the past 20 years) mainstream educators have resisted a critical analysis of urban music and culture in the form of hip-hop/rap from an Afrikan centered academic perspective, not realizing the significant positive impact this genre of music can have on the Afrikan worldview and Afrikan peoples views of the world.

However, popular music and images are made by someone (corporate profiteers, with two ends in view—the propagation of white supremacy / black oppression and money). Thus, we contend that rap music/hip-hop culture can be offered in such a way that it EduTains -analyzing racism, capitalism, sexism and other manifestations of national

oppression- as well as be enjoyed as entertainment. One of the communiversity's main goals is for the learner to formulate a sophisticated socio-political and historo-cultural “over-standing” of the present condition of the masses of our people and the poor-at home and abroad. Thus, you will be equipped with a cultural orientation suited for further Afrikan-centered socialization. We believe that such an academic pursuit is vitally necessary because the Eurocentric education /acculturation process, that we most frequently pursue in America for a job, more frequently than not poisons our individual and collective aspirations of national liberation and self determination as

an Arikan people.

Historically

poetry/ rap, literature and music have been combined to play a pivotal role in black progress and power in the Americas. It all goes back to the power and central role of the Afrikan oral tradition. For example, our ancestors communicated with drums. “Because of the perceived potential of the talking drum to "speak" in a tongue unknown to slave traders and thus to incite rebellion, revolt, resistance and revolution, in 1838 these and other drums were banned from use by African in the United States.

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank intends to serve as a premier

“New-Age Talking Drum”.

Click a SnapShot to Open a Zine

There are several main reasons for the school’s audio-visual (Radio and TV driven) primacy:

We believe that the ultimate end of intellectual growth and development for students of Afrikan decent in 21st America is, first and foremost, a deeper overstanding and a fuller appreciation of Afrikan peoples continuing struggle for individual and collective liberation. Reading, thinking, looking and listening with close attention to the curricula’s scholastic guidance you learn to see more, understand more and uncover more, thus preparing for a richer, more selfless and more meaningful contributions to self and kind.

as music and videos use artful combinations of language and images, the essential processes of meaning-making, to formulate ideas in the minds of the participants, critical analysis can lead to a more astute and powerful use of Black music and images (espically that of the hip-hop / rap music genre ) as tools of Africentric cultural development and leadership training.

critical analysis of RBG’s audio-visual content and methods very efficiently teaches us to be aware of the cultural delineations of popular / white corporate media, including its ideological elements and psyops motivations.

, please remember, education is not eternal and timelessly written in stone, but should be situated historically, socially, intellectually, written and read at particular times, with particular intents, under particular historical conditions, with particular cultural, personal,

gender, racial, class and other perspectives at center. Through RBG multimedia learning the student / teacher will appreciate how ideology influences culture and culture guides ideology in real time.

We think this new style of learning / teaching is of particular timely in an age where so many of us, sad to say, don't read, but use popular media as a sole source of information. RBG Street Scholars Think Tank is a New Age counterforce.

RBG4Lif

"Why You Need To Subscribe To RBG Tube"

RBG Street Scholar — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:55:02 -0000

The black revolutionary writer Frantz Fanon
once asserted that, "each generation, out of relative obscurity, must
discover its own destiny. Then it has a choice: It may fulfill that
destiny or betray it."

A great place to begin your fulfillment is with RBG Tube. Speaking truth to power, RBG Tube is one of the many RBG Street Scholars Think Tank resources on the Web for peoples of Afrikan descent that desire real EduTainment. Enjoy and learn from lively discussions, videos, conscious music/spoken word and powerful digital art, photos and images.

It is unquestionably the baddest Multi-media Forum & EduTainment Center online. Based on the principles of Maat and Nguzo Saba, RBG Tube
is a one-stop-shop for education, consciousness raising, entertainment
and liberation. And the nicest thing about it is that you can become a
contributor. Just join the forum, it's free.

RBG Tube
is designed to facilitate your overall understanding and linkage to the
many assets of our communiversity and is resource for scholarly
research, build together and learning about any subject / topic related
to what we must be about: Namely, the "Africentric Idea of
Education" let's take the learner from G.E.D. to Ph.D in the
contemporary liberal arts and sciences;

Areas covered including:

> computers & information technology,

> history and cultural development,

> religion and spirituality,

> sociology,

> political science,

> creative productions/ entertainment,

> education,

> health promotion and disease prevention

> economics and

> psychology

A one stop shop using all forms of media to interactively showcase our
ideas of relevant education, unification, collectivity and self
definition.

RBG Tube is a part of Assata Speaks - Hands Off Assata - Let's Get Free - Revolutionary - Pan-Africanism - Black On Purpose - Liberation - Forum

"Join today and tell em RBG Street Scholar sent cha"

OVERALL GOALS OF THE COLLEGE:

1. To familiarize and expose
learners to a wide variety of 19th and 20th century African-American
leaders and our rich history of struggles for human and civil right,
national liberation and self determination.

2.
To expose learners to a Concentrically Integrated African-Centered
Liberal Arts Curriculum--including, online mini-lectures, commentaries
and interviews from our authors, playwrights, poets, activist and
scholars--that will enable large amounts of information to be
comprehended in a relatively short period of time.

3.
To continue the development of an appreciation of Afrikan-Centered
Education propagated through the Afrikan oral & musical traditions;
including Afrikan Drums, Spoken Word / Rap, R & B, Blues, Jazz and
Reggae.

4.
To draw lessons from the rich legacy of struggle and resistance to
oppression within the African American community through critical
analysis of videos, photo-stories, multimedia essays and PowerPoint
shows and scholarly charts, tables, graphs and PDF documents; thus
fostering socio-political activism in the learners own lives.

5.
To develop, encourage and diversify strategies for learning about and
responding to social, political, cultural and moral issues impacting
Afrikans in America, thus increasing comprehension and interpretation
skills.

6.
To synthesize serious community issues using multi-faceted content and
learning objects which represent the perspective of those who are in an
American minority group; and apply said principles and generalizations
in investigation of societal issues and problems from an
Afrikan-Centered perspective.

7.
Finally and most importantly, to teach and learn from aspiring and
seasoned teachers within a sophisticated SDL (Self Directed
Learning)--e classes environment how to become more effective teachers,
leaders and activist. We sharpen academic professionals and community
educators / street scholars skills in the areas of public speaking,
reading and writing critically and designing captivating presentation
suitable for both whole-group and small-group settings. In other words,
this is where the tutors (RBG Street Scholar) and other facilitators
teach you how to become inspirer and healer of our people. Not only do
we develop your skills, but we also provides you with the content to do
you thang. You will even learn how to modify the content provided such
that it becomes a new derivative product all you own; to do what you
will, ie. teach from it, barter it etc.

Please keep in mind that RBG is a Think Tank. A
center of higher learning organized for intensive study, research and
problem solving, focused in the areas of the use of technology in
Afrikan-centered cultural development and education, social, political
and economic strategy.

More
frequently than not, we initiate our teaching / learning process by
presenting audio and visual resources that pose semalies, parables,
metaphors, analogies and oxymorons--that's what makes you think (we
hope). Then we have lively and well informed group discussions
revolving around the various messages put forth in the learning objects
and media assets. Next we research the facts overlaying our discussions
using the voluminous number of resources available in the
communiversity's web portals and learning environments. Finally, each
learner has the opportunity to fill our evaluation instruments on most
of the 5,000+ RLOs (Reusable Learning Objects) and media assets that
comprise the core curriculum. It is out of following this methodology
that we devise position papers and community policy recommendations and
initiatives...

Enjoy you journey and let us know what you think.

WHO IS RBG STREET SCHOLAR:

He
is Marc Imhotep Cray, a Physician (UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School),
Pharmacy School trained Pharmacologist / Analytical Chemist, Addiction
Medicine Specialist, Basic Medical Sciences (BMS) & Black Studies
Master Teacher, Medical Infomatics Expert, Webmaster, Medical &
Afrikan-Centered Education Researcher and RBG Street Scholar in
Evolution.

·He is formerly Director of Office of Medical Education American International School of Medicine-Georgetown, Guyana.

·Formerly
Associate Professor of Basic Medical Sciences and Campus Curriculum
Coordinator International University of Health Sciences-School of
Medicine-Saint Kitts, West Indies (only PBL Medical School in the
Caribbean)

·Dr. Cray is an Expert PBL and Case-Based Learning Tutor/Facilitator

·He
has a unique integrated fund of knowledge and eloquence in the seven
traditional BMS with USMLE Step 1 level proficiency in the “4
P’s”-Physiology, Pathophysiology, Pathology and Pharmacology

·Dr.
Cray established the only BMS Curriculum Driven Introduction to
Clinical Medicine-Clinical Skills Center (ICM-CSC) in the West Indies

·Dr. Cray is an experienced Medical Web Developer, e-Professor/Online Lecturer

·He is an author of several e-articles, e-books and e-magazines (e-Zine), USMLE Tagged Virtual Medical School Courseware and RBG Street Scholars Think Tank.

RBG4Lif

HIP HOP JUST WENT ACADEMIC: RBG STYLE

RBG Street Scholar — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 03:48:06 -0000

Visit RBG Worldwide 1 Nation
Tha first exclusive New Afrikan Social Network on the Web.
Dedicated to the Greatness of Our Elders and Ancestors.
A place for hip hop artists, poets, scholars, activists and
family to share their talents, skills, news and works with one another.

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank's Purpose:
This Educational Program and Research Project is Dedicated to Further Building the Hip Hop--Black Liberation Movement Connection by Integrating Conscious Digital Edutainment with A Scholarly Self Directed Learning Environment.

Never Forget This Video Brothers and Sisters

RBG Street Scholar Launches Black Tube:
"A Consciousness Raising VLog "

It's Light, Fast, Smart, Sharp and Black to the Future

"Mass media have played and will continue to play a crucial role in the way white Americans perceive African-Americans. As a result of the overwhelming media focus on crime, drug use, gang violence, and other forms of anti-social behavior among African-Americans, the media have fostered a distorted and pernicious public perception of African-Americans".
The Yale Political Quarterly / Read More

We offer this edutaining video driven learning environment as a counter to mass media distortions and "white lies". Here's a 40 video demo. Click the banner for the full version.

At RBG Street Scholars Think Tank Education = Training/Skills + Knowledge of Self

RBG Street Scholar — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:38:02 -0000

We Are A Scholarly Revolutionary Higher Education Environment, Presented Using An Interactive Edutaining Teaching Methodology. Every Media Asset is a Learning Object:

Study Guides and Strategies

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank Rules Of Engagement, Featuring NBO: "Say It Loud"

RBG Street Scholar Core Curriculum Videos @ Veoh.com

RBG Street Scholars Video JukeBox @ DailyMotion

RBG Street Scholar Say's " I Have A Dream Too: Our Own Govornment"

RBG DEFINED:
No matter if one relates R.B.G. with
Red Black and Green,
Revolutionary But Gangstas,
Redeemed By God,
Read Bout Garvey,
Revolutionary Black Gangstas,
Real Black Girls,
Ready 2 Bust Gats or
Riders Basic Guidelines, etc
We must know that the principles and guidelines were passed down from great leaders like Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton. They must know that the RBG Family consists of real leaders that will forever ride for our Black and Brown People worldwide.

Socio-Educational Networking based on the Afrikan Concept of "I Am Because We Are and Because We Are Therefore I Am"

Spyn Cycal Home Made Hip Hop Video / Click a Poster to Play

RBG Street Scholar — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 13:25:22 -0000

Check Out Spyn Cycal Movement @ MySpace

Raekwon/Ghostface Killah - Rock the Bells
Tour 2006 Avalon Boston, MA

Smif-N-Wessun - Rock
The Bells Tour 2006 Avalon Boston, MA

Redman - Rock The Bells
Tour 2006 Avalon Boston, MA

Psalm One - A Few Good Men Tour 2006 Paradise Rock Club Boston

Stones Throw Ten Year Tour 2006 - Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA

Percee P - Stones Throw
10 Year Tour 2006 The Paradise Rock Club
Boston, MA

Del & A-Plus - A Few Good Men Tour 2006 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA (part one)

Del & A-Plus - A Few Good Men Tour 2006 Paradise Rock Club Boston, MA (part two)

Zion I & The Grouch - Heroes In The City Of Dope Tour 2006 Great Scott Boston, MA

Wise Intelligent @ Harper's Ferry Boston, MA 01/28/07

X-Clan @ Harper's Ferry Boston, MA 01/28/07

YZ @ Harper's Ferry Boston, MA 01/28/07
Coming soon...

RBG Street Scholar Presents: An Afrikan Odyssey In The Americas

RBG Street Scholar — Sat, 27 Jan 2007 00:28:35 -0000

[Click Here For Companion Slide Show and The RBG Re-Afrikanization Portal]

LIFE WITHOUT BLACK PEOPLE
(All Photos Are Hot-Linked to Related Extentions)
A very humorous and revealing story is told about a group of white people who were fed up with African Americans, so they joined together and wished themselves away. They passed through a deep dark tunnel and emerged in sort of a twilight zone where there is an America without black people.

At first these white people breathed a sigh of relief. At last, they said, "No more crime, drugs, violence and welfare. All of the blacks have gone!"

Then suddenly, reality set in. The "NEW AMERICA" is not America at all — only a barren land.

1. There are very few crops that have flourished because the nation was built on a slave-supported system.

2. There are no cities with tall skyscrapers because Alexander Mils, a black man, invented the elevator, and without it, one finds great difficulty reaching higher floors.

3. There are few if any cars because Richard Spikes, a black man, invented the automatic gearshift, Joseph Gambol, also black, invented the Super Charge System for Internal Combustion Engines, and Garrett A. Morgan, a black man, invented the traffic signals

4. Furthermore, one could not use the rapid transit system because its procurer was the electric trolley, which was invented by another black man, Albert R. Robinson.

5. Even if there were streets on which cars and a rapid transit system could operate, they were cluttered with paper because an African American, Charles Brooks, invented the street sweeper.

6. There were few if any newspapers, magazines and books because John Love invented the pencil sharpener, William Purveys invented the fountain pen, and Lee Barrage invented the Type Writing Machine and W. A. Love invented the Advanced Printing Press. They were all, you guessed it, Black.

7. Even if Americans could write their letters, articles and books, they would not have been transported by mail because William Barry invented the Postmarking and Canceling Machine, William Purveys invented the Hand Stamp and Philip Downing invented the Letter Drop.

8. The lawns were brown and wilted because Joseph Smith invented the Lawn Sprinkler and John Burr the Lawn Mower.

9. When they entered their homes, they found them to be poorly ventilated and poorly heated. You see, Frederick Jones invented the Air Conditioner and Alice Parker the Heating Furnace. Their homes were also dim. But of course, Lewis Later invented the Electric Lamp, Michael Harvey invented the lantern and Granville T. Woods invented the Automatic Cut off Switch. Their homes were also filthy because Thomas W. Steward invented the Mop and Lloyd P. Ray the Dust Pan.

10. Their children met them at the door-barefooted, shabby, motley and unkempt. But what could one expect? Jan E. Matzelinger invented the Shoe Lasting Machine, Walter Sammons invented the Comb, Sarah Boone invented the Ironing Board and George T. Samon invented the Clothes Dryer.

11. Finally, they were resigned to at least have dinner amidst all of this turmoil. But here again, the food had spoiled because another Black Man, John Standard invented the refrigerator.

Now, isn't that something? What would this country be like without the contributions of Blacks, as African-Americans?

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "by the time we leave for work, Americans have depended on the inventions from the minds of Blacks." Black history includes more than just slavery, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois.

PLEASE SHARE, ABUNDANTLY

(Embellishment By RBG Street Schola r, Jan. 2007)

Lets Get Free or Die Tryin

RBG Street Scholar — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:07:10 -0000

1. I’m a African and I know what’s happening
2. We down to take it to the full length/ Meet us up on Capitol Hill and we can get up on some real shit.
3. Time to get free/Blow up like Cincinnati." System Ain't going to change, unless we make it change
4. Forward to the final offensive. Neo-colonialism must go. Africa for Africans at home and abroad
5. never surrender never give up never sellout
6. UHURU means freedom
7. Malcolm X is the greatest emcee of all times
8. Dead Prez means dead the fucking president and power 2 the people!
9. We went to Soweto and I found my brothers standing strong like soldiers
10.Throw your own flag up

http://www.deadprez.com/

Support the Hands Off Assata Shakur Campaign and Movement

RBG Street Scholar — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 06:14:37 -0000

ASANTE SANA TO TTDC / Jacuma and the Assata Shakur Forums administration
for providing me with a place to share and blossom from.

Message To RBG Family: Revolutionary Warfare-Re Birth of a Nation

This Educational Program and Research Project is Dedicated to Further
Building the Hip Hop--Black Liberation Movement Connection By Providing
A Scholarly Digital Edutainment / Learning Environment

Click this Poster for the RBG Street Scholar Unity Video

Assata Shakur has been living in Cuba since 1986, after escaping from prison where she was serving a life sentence imposed in a highly disputed trial. Assata was a Black Panther then a Black Liberation Army (BLA) leader in the early '70s, so she was a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO operation. Assata was captured in a shoot-out resulting from resistance to yet another "driving while black" police action in 1973 on the New Jersey State Turnpike. This time a State Trooper was killed. Zayd Shakur, traveling in the car with Assata, was also killed.
The third person in the car, Sundiata Acoli, is still serving time over 20 years later and has recently been denied parole for another 20 years. According to one of Sundiata' attorney, Joan P. Gibbs, "Assata, at the time of her arrest, was 'wanted' on federal and state charges in New York, all of which juries subsequently found her not guilty of or were dismissed."
"The idea of the Black Liberation Army emerged from conditions in Black communities: conditions of poverty, indecent housing, massive unemployment, poor medical care, and inferior education. The idea came about because Black people are not free or equal in this country. Because ninety percent of the men and women in this country's prisons are Black and Third World. Because ten-year-old children are shot down in our streets. Because dope has saturated our communities, preying on the disillusionment and frustrations of our children. The concept of the BLA arose because of the political, social, and economic oppression of Black people in this country. And where there is oppression, there will be resistance. The BLA is part of that resistance movement. The Black Liberation Army stands for freedom and justice for all people.

THE ASSATA SHAKUR ACTION COMMITTEE WAS FORMED IN PHILADELPHIA BY A GROUP OF COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS. ASSATA WAS UNJUSTLY AND ILLEGALLY INVESTIGATED AND PERSECUTED BY THE FBI'S COINTELPRO. SHE WAS SHOT AND NEARLY KILLED, BEATEN AND FALSELY IMPRISONED. SHE ESCAPED PRISON IN 1979 AND WENT TO CUBA AS A POLITICAL EXILE. TODAY, SHE IS STILL TARGETED AND HAS BEEN PLACED ON THE U.S. TERRORIST LIST WITH A MILLION DOLLAR BOUNTY. SHE IS AN INNOCENT WOMAN AND WE MUST DEFEND HER!

For More See: RBG Photo-Story Tribute: Pride Of A Panther and Assata Song, Feat. The P.I.C. & The Fugitive, An Essay By Former Black Panther Kathleen Cleaver Esq.

One of My First Leaders And Teachers: Dr. Amiri Baraka

RBG Street Scholar — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 03:59:23 -0000

Amiri Baraka, born in 1934, in Newark, New Jersey, USA, is the author of over 40 books of essays, poems, drama, and music history and criticism, a poet icon and revolutionary political activist who has recited poetry and lectured on cultural and political issues extensively in the USA, the Caribbean, Africa, and Europe.

With influences on his work ranging from musical orishas such as Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Theophilus Monk, and Sun Ra to the Cuban Revolution, Malcolm X and world revolutionary movements, Baraka is renown as the founder of the Black Arts Movement in Harlem in the 1960s that became, though short-lived, the virtual blueprint for a new American theater aesthetics. The movement and his published and performance work, such as the signature study on African-American music, Blues People (1963) and the play Dutchman (1963) practically seeded “the cultural corollary to black nationalism” of that revolutionary American milieu.

Other titles range from Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1979), to The Music (1987), a fascinating collection of poems and monographs on Jazz and Blues authored by Baraka and his wife and poet Amina, and his boldly sortied essays, The Essence of Reparations (2003).

The Essence of Reparations is Baraka’s first published collection of essays in book form radically exploring what is sure to become a twenty-first century watershed movement of Black peoples to the interrelated issues of racism, national oppression, colonialism, neo-colonialism, self-determination and national and human liberation, which he has long been addressing creatively and critically. It has been said that Amiri Baraka is committed to social justice like no other American writer. He has taught at Yale, Columbia, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook...Learn More About Our Master Poet

Mumia Abu-Jamal On "Rapping Rap"

RBG Street Scholar — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 13:32:22 -0000

"Let me write the songs of a nation, and I care not who makes it's laws."

- Daniel O'Connell, Irish Nationalist (1775-1847)

(This Mumia Poster is Hot to
Mumia's RBG SSTT Classroom)

The recent Rap Summit in New York, organized by hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons, and supported by leading industry, political, academic, and cultural figures speaks volumes, not so much of the music, as of the people who make the music, and what role they play in American (and increasing, global) society. One does not have to look long nor hard to perceive the criticism launched at the rap music genre. It is, in part, this very criticism, coupled with political threats, that made such a Summit necessary. It's helpful for us sometimes to look at history to see more clearly where we are today, and why. You don't have to crack a history book to find the first example. (Talk to your mom, pop, or grandmom, grandpop.)

In the 1970s and 1960s when rock music and rhythm and blues were emerging, it was heavily criticized by adults, who called it "noise." Southern racists and segregationists called it "##### music," or "jungle music," and organized events to burn such records, or even bulldoze piles of such materials. What was happening then was an historical echo of what was happening before, in an earlier era. When both jazz and the blues emerged from black culture, these artists were severely criticized for making music that was seen as "immoral." The late, great jazz trumpeter, Miles Davis, bore the hatred of small-minded cops in Philadelphia and Manhattan, and could easily predict harassment, a jail cell, or a beating when he performed in either venue.

Black feminist scholar, Angela Davis, notes that both whites and bourgeios blacks regarded the blues as "lowly," "vulgar," or "bizarre" musical forms. (See her *Blues Legacies and Black Feminism*, , p.123). Today, the same artists who were criticized and demeaned as "low," "vulgar," or even drug addicts, are remembered as musical geniuses, and icons, whose work is revered for their scope, depth, power and brilliance. Imagine how dry American music would be without John Coltrane, Miles, Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday. Or Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Chuck Berry, etc....

What is happening with rap?

Every generation of Black America creates its own music form, to speak to their place in national life. Rag-time and blues were the first musical forms made outside of the church, and as a secular form, was condemned by African-American religious and community leaders. It caught on with working class and poor blacks though, because it spoke to their lives in a false, hypocritical "freedom," which was really blue.

Similarly, rap has been criticized for its violent misogynistic (means the hatred of women) character. That violence, misogyny, and materialism arises from a national characteristic that is profoundly American. America is easily one of the most violent nations on earth, and has a barely suppressed hatred of women. Materialism is almost a pre-eminent American trait. Much of the criticism leveled at rap was at one time directed to other Black art forms, and usually had more to do with the policing of Black sexuality than anything else. Nothing so disturbs the twisted labyrinths of white supremacy than Black creativity, artistry and productivity. Think of it this way: what other music form draws the scrutiny of the
corporate press like rap? I have heard heavy metal that was so steeped in violent imagery, of death, torture, and dismemberment, that it made my nose bleed. It was so misogynistic that it gave me a headache. But these were white artists, who are presumed to be free. Rappers are allegedly 'free' to say what they wish, but they are profiled by the state, in the same way Miles was 40 years ago. The cops didn't think he should be driving an imported car, so they busted him on Broad Street in Philly.

How little things have changed. (c)MAJ 2001

******************************************************

This column may be reprinted and/or distributed by electronic means, but only for non-commercial use, and only with the inclusion of the following copyright information:

Text (c) copyright 2001 by Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the author.

A Lil Somin Somin Bout RBG Street Scholar ( Marc Imhotep Cray, M.D.)

RBG Street Scholar — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 14:02:28 -0000

Institute for Minority Physicians of the Future (IMPF)

Dr. Cray is a Physician (UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School),
Pharmacy School trained Pharmacologist / Analytical Chemist, Addiction Medicine Specialist, Basic Medical Sciences (BMS) & Black Studies Master Teacher, Medical Infomatics Expert, Webmaster, Medical & Afrikan-Centered Education Researcher and RBG Street Scholar in Evolution.
·He is formerly Director of Office of Medical Education American International School of Medicine-Georgetown, Guyana.
·Formerly Associate Professor of Basic Medical Sciences and Campus Curriculum Coordinator International University of Health Sciences-School of Medicine-Saint Kitts, West Indies (only PBL Medical School in the Caribbean at the time)
·Dr. Cray is an Expert PBL and Case-Based Learning Tutor / Facilitator
·He has a unique integrated fund of knowledge and eloquence in the seven traditional BMS with USMLE Step 1 level proficiency in the “4 P’s”-Physiology, Pathophysiology, Pathology and Pharmacology
·Dr.Cray established the first BMS Curriculum Driven Introduction to Clinical Medicine-Clinical Skills Center (ICM-CSC) in the West Indies
·Dr. Cray is an experienced Medical Web Developer, e-Professor / Online Lecturer
·He is an author of several e-articles, e-books and e-magazines (e-Zine), USMLE Tagged Virtual Medical School Courseware and RBG Street Scholars Think Tank.

Related assets in our school/ download the high definition powerpoint of the above photo-story also: If the zimbio pilot defaults you to the front page of the school just click forums in the menu bar to access these docs .

"YOUR CHILD CAN ATTEND MEDICAL SCHOOL FREE"

HIV and AIDS Education: Basic and Advanced/ Special Focus on sub-Saharan Africa

OUR STORY IN BRIEF! The Relationship Between America, Blacks, Health and Medicine

Medical Apartheid: From the Tuskegee Experiments to the Present: Text, Audio and Video

RBGz "Imhotep Virtual Medical School"-For Advance High School and College Pre Med Students

EXPERIENCE

5/2004-Present Institute for Minority Physicians of the Future(IMPF)

Founder and Director Office of Medical Education

IMPF mission is to become the leading organizational force for parity in medical education by helping minority students develop the skills that will enable them to compete on a more equal footing in the medical school admission process. IMPF elucidates, distills and fuses educational psychology, information technology and undergraduate medical education data. We develop Computer Mediated Medical Education(CMME) programs, projects and products that serve to increase recruitment, admission and retention (RAR) of under-represented minorities (URM) in major United States medical schools. The ultimate goal being for these students to defend, define and develop medical careers that will be committed to the elimination of health disparities in racial/ethnic minorities and the poor.

Ø 5/2003-5/2004 International University of Health Sciences-School of Medicine

Marc Imhotep Cray MD

1917 Taffeta Trail

Lithonia, Georgia 30058

Primary Phone: (770) 322‑1050

Secondary : (404) 752‑1617

impfome@yahoo.com

* Influences: DPZ and Family, UNO The Prophet, Paris, KRS-1, PE/Chuck D, Dr. Mutulu Shakur, Mumia Abu Jamal, Dr. Amiri Baraka, Bro. J of X-Klan, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Khallid Abdul Muhammad, Dr. Martin Luther Jr., Minister Malcolm X, Kwame Toure/formerly Stokely Carmichael, Dr. Amos Wilson, Dr Leonard Jeffries, Dr. Na’im Akbar, Dr Ben, Dr Asa Hilliard, Dr. John Jackson, Dr. Chancellor Williams, Dr. Mulana Karenga, Dr. Oba T’ Shaka, Rev. Khandi Paasewe, Dr. Molefi Asante and many, many more

One of RBG Street Scholar's Leaders & Teachers: Dr. Mutulu Shakur

RBG Street Scholar — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:17:07 -0000

Dr. Shakur is a power brother and Master Teacher; a first class, old school RBG street scholar. I have been a student of his for over 25 years. He serve as one of RBG Street Scholars Think Tank’s primary professors. Herein are SOME OF his writings, newsletters and interviews. All RBG Street Scholars in residence are required to study these learning objects with close attention. I here many hip-hop headz and rap lovers refer to Tupac as prophet, in light of the knowledge he so eloquently dropped in many of his most memorable hits. Well I am old enough to know from where his keen insight was born and nurtured--- Firstly, he was educated YOUNG MAN (one who took the time to pick up a book and read critically ) like myself he had a $100,000 European education and a $1,000,000 Afrikan-Centered education , compliments of his being raised in and around real revolutionary struggle for our people. His mother and father were two of my 1970’s s/heroes. They are the type of intellectual activist (street scholars) that have contributed copiously to my being inclined to create this school. Today I believe in each one teach one. thus, I will see to it, as they did for me, that each and every one of my serious students learns all that I know—and who taught me—Dr. Shakur was/is one of those teachers.

About Dr. Shakur

Mutulu Shakur is a Doctor of Acupuncture. Dr. Shakur is also a deeply committed New Afrikan (Black) community political activist who has taken part for years in the struggles for the liberation and development of New Afrikan (Black) people in America.

Shakur's political and social consciousness began to develop early in his life. His mother suffered not only from being Black and female, but she was also blind. It was Shakur's first confrontation with the state. The experience of helping his mother negotiate the social service system made him realize that the system does not operate in the interests of Black people and that Black people must control the institutions that affect their lives.

It is not surprising then that one of the first struggles in which he became involved was Ocean Hill-Brownsville in Brooklyn, where Black parents were struggling to control their children's educational density. His participation was also based on his own experiences in the New York public school system. "I was involved because I had been miseducated, abused, and disrespected," said Shakur. "Ocean Hill-Brownsville was similar to the struggle in Soweto in 1976 in which the people struggled against the system of Bantu education."

As an acupuncturist and health-care worker, Shakur worked from 1971 to 1978 for the Lincoln Hospital Detoxification Program in the Bronx, New York. From 1978 to 1982, Dr. Shakur was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Black Acupuncture Advisory Association of North America (BAAANA) and the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture. At Lincoln, Dr. Shakur led a program which used acupuncture to assist in the detoxification of thousands of drug addicts. The Lincoln Detox Program was recognized as the largest and most effective of its kind by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Acupuncture Research Society, and the World Academic Society of Acupuncture.

At BAAANA, Dr. Shakur continued his remarkable work against drug addiction. He also treated and/or supervised the treatment of thousands of elderly and poor patients who otherwise would have received no treatment of this kind. Patients were able to receive quality health care at reasonable prices. Moreover, the clinic at BAAANA served on a regular basis many community leaders, political activists, lawyers, doctors, and various international dignitaries. At BAAANA, Dr. Shakur and his fellow cofounder, Dr. Richard Delaney, trained over one hundred students in the medical science of acupuncture. The training was accomplished through the BAAANA affiliate called the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture. Some of the trainees at the Harlem Institute of Acupuncture were already medical doctors, licensed by various states in the U.S.

In the late 1970s Dr. Shakur traveled with Dr. Mario Wexu, Direction of Education at the International Association of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture at Montreal, to the People's Republic of China, where he observed and studied acupuncture applied as the primary form of medical care. Dr. Shakur's work in acupuncture and drug detoxification was nationally and internationally known. Dr. Shakur and his colleague, Richard Delaney, by invitation attended and lectured on their work at many conferences.

Out of the bowels of prison came
the likes of Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X,
George Jackson, Bunchy Carter, Ahmad
Evans, Eldridge Cleaver, Sekou Odinga,
Dhoruba bin Wahad, Lumumba Shakur,
Albert Nuh Washington, H. Rap Brown
and many other lesser known but just as
important resisters. Many of the Civil Rights
leaders and participants were protected
and encouraged by their pilgrimage to prison.
Mutulu Shakur

Brother Shakur also worked with the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM) in his early years. This was a Revolutionary Black Nationalist group which struggled for Black self- determination and socialist change in America.

Brother Shakur's primary work as a political activist was as a cofounder, leader, worker, and security personnel in the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika. The Provisional Government was founded in 1968. Its objectives were to establish an independent New Afrikan (Black) Republic in the states of Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the traditional Blackbelt states in the Southeastern portion of the USA. Although the Provisional Government's objectives were certainly viewed with disdain by the U.S. government, various American law enforcement agencies, media giants, and whites generally, its existence has been long-standing and supported by reputable persons in the Black communities across the country. Indeed, the P.G. RNA and the New Afrikan Independence Movement, of which it is a part, grew out of the various struggles of Blacks against repression in America. The Provisional Government is, in part, supported by and composed of educators, lawyers, political leaders, workers, and other reputable persons in the Black communities across America. Brother Shakur has also supported the struggles for Afrikan independence in Afrika. Indeed, he traveled to the nation of Zimbabwe in 1980 at the invitation of the Zimbabwe Afrikan National Union.

Brother Dr. Shakur has furthermore been a dedicated worker and champion in the struggle against political imprisonment and political convictions of Black activists in America. He has also been a leader in the struggle against the illegal U.S. and local law enforcement programs designed to destroy the Black movement in America and has worked to expose and to stop the secret American war against its Black colony.

Bro. Shakur served on the Committee to Defend Herman Ferguson, a leading Black political activist and educator charged in the RAM conspiracy case of the 1960s. Dr. Shakur was a member of the National Committee to Free Political Prisoners. He has worked to legally defend and support political prisoners and prisoners of war like Imari Obadele, Ph.D., and the RNA 11, Rev. Ben Chavis and the Wilmington 10, Geronimo Pratt of the Black Panther Party, Assata Shakur of the Black Liberation Army, and Sundiata Acoli of the Black Liberation Army. He contributed to the development of a petition to the United Nations by the National Conference of Black Lawyers and others. The petition is now documented in the book, Illusions of Justice, by Lennox S. Hinds. He has worked with the National Conference of Black Lawyers in developing defense committees for numerous political prisoners and Black prisoners of war.

Bro. Shakur was most importantly a cofounder and director of the National Task Force for COINTELPRO Litigation and Research which investigated, exposed, and instigated suits against the FBI and other American law agencies for criminal acts, domestic spying, dirty tricks, repression, and counterinsurgency warfare maneuvers against the New Afrikan Independence struggle and others struggling against oppression in the U.S.

Because of his work in the National Liberation Movement, his freedom of information files (F.O.I.A.) expose that, from the age of 19, Dr. Shakur's activities in the National Liberation Movement were reported to the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation every three months. These reports contained language clearly indicating a nefarious set of actions against him. He believes through continuing discovery actions, more significant information will be exposed, revealing a classic continuation of COINTELPRO leading to his indictment in 1981. He was charged and convicted, and was sentenced to 60 years, for allegedly perpetrating a conspiracy against the United States government, regarding the activities of the Black Liberation Army/New Afrikan Freedom Fighters; charges which consisted of expropriations of funds, which reportedly went to liberation movements throughout the United States, and throughout the world; regarding the liberation of Prisoners of War inside the U.S. prisons, such as Assata Shakur, and the perpetuation of an underground network. From Can't Jail the Spirit, Third Edition, October, 1992; Editorial El Coqui, Publishers How you can support Mutulu Shakur Visit the PARC political prisoner listing for Mutulu Shakur's current address.

Mutulu Shakur is receiving support from the Jericho Amnesty Movement thejerichomovement.com and
prisonactivist.org/jericho_sfbay
and from the
Anarchist Black Cross Federation

Chairman Omali Yeshitela: Another RBG Street Scholar Major Influence

RBG Street Scholar — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 18:53:00 -0000

Omali Yeshitela, formerly known as Joseph Waller, was born in 1941 in St. Petersburg, Florida. In December 1966, as a SNCC organizer, Yeshitela led a group of young African people into the St. Petersburg City Hall and ripped down from the walls a demeaning racist mural that had hung for thirty years on the first landing. For removing the painting, Yeshitela was given a five-year prison sentence, of which he served two years.

While in prison in 1968 Yeshitela formed JOMO, the Junta of Militant Organizations. Four years later Yeshitela organized the African People’s Socialist Party, which built the Uhuru Movement. In 1976 the Party formed the African People’s Solidarity Committee, an organization of white people who work under the Party’s leadership.

The Chairman built the African National Prison Organization (ANPO) in 1980, and in 1982 the Party held the first World Tribunal on Reparations for African People in Brooklyn, NY.

Chairman Omali has waged countless campaigns to defend the interests of the African working class, edited The Burning Spear newspaper, published books and pamphlets and made groundbreaking advances in his political theory. Known as African Internationalism, the Chairman’s theory defines capitalism as a parasitic system that was born from the enslavement of African people and the oppression of colonized peoples worldwide.

Chairman Omali and the African People’s Socialist Party created successful and popular economic and political institutions including Uhuru Houses and Spear Graphics, as well as the Uhuru Bakery Café and the Uhuru Furniture Stores in Oakland, CA, Philadelphia, PA and St. Petersburg, FL.

In 1991 the Chairman founded the International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, a mass organization with the specific purpose of stopping the U.S. government’s counterinsurgency against the African community.

On October 24, 1996, after the police killing an 18-year-old African motorist and subsequent rebellions, Chairman Omali emerged as the spokesman for the interests of the African working class community calling for genuine economic development as opposed to the brutal police containment policies.

Yeshitela ran for Mayor of St. Petersburg in 2001, winning every black and mixed precinct but one with his platform of “St. Petersburg united in shared prosperity.”

In recent years the Chairman travels and speaks tirelessly to fulfill his lifelong aim of building the African Socialist International (ASI), committed to the struggle to liberate Africa as the birthright of African people everywhere.

Links for further study:

www.inpdum.org : International People's Democratic Uhuru Movement

www.burningspearuhuru.com : Burning Spear

asiuhuru.org : African Socialist International

apspuhuru.org: African People's Socialist Party

www.frica-union.org : African Union

History Is Best Qualified To Reward All Research

RBG Street Scholar — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 04:39:08 -0000

RBG Street Scholars Think Tank

DRAWING LESSONS FROM THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT

WHEN WE LOOK AT THE NEW IN THE OLD AND OLD IN THE NEW, WE BECOME ACUTELY AWARE OF THE FACT THAT THE MORE THINGS CHANGE THE MORE THINGS STAY THE SAME. THUS, RBG STREET SCHOLARS THINK TANK HAS CHOSEN TO DRAW LESSONS FROM AND USE AS A MODEL THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT OF THE 1960’S” AS A SPRINGBOARD TO EXCITE AND INSPIRE THE EVOLUTION OF A 21ST CENTURY CONSCIOUS HIP-HOP/RAP REVOLUTION.

REFERRED TO AS “THE ARTISTIC SISTER OF THE BLACK POWER MOVEMENT,” THE BLACK ARTS MOVEMENT STANDS AS THE SHORTEST, BUT NONETHELESS SINGLE MOST POWERFUL MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN LITERATURE/CREATIVE PRODUCTIONS—POSSIBLY IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AS A WHOLE. A COMBINATION OF POETRY, MUSIC, PLAYWRITING/THEATER AND LITERATURE, IT SIGNIFICANCE HAS BEEN MARGINALIZED AND ACCUSED OF BEING REVERSELY RACIST BY OUR ACADEMICS— BUT I KNOW BETTER, AS I DON’T OFFER THIS SCHOOL AS A STERILE, OBJECTIVE HANDS OFF PRODUCT. MY LISTENING TO AND STUDYING THE PEOPLE DEPICTED ABOVE AND THROUGHOUT THIS CURRICULUM ARE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR ME NOT BEING YOUR TYPICAL RED, WHITE AND BLUE INCONSEQUENTIAL BLACK DOCTOR; AND THUS, WILLING AND ABLE TO PUT TOGETHER A PRODUCT THAT SPEAKS TO OUR PLIGHT. I HAVE A DREAM OF HIP-HOP AND RAP LEARNING FROM AND BUILDING ON THE BAM CONTRIBUTION; IN VIEW OF THE FACT THAT THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL RAPPERS. THE BAM FUNDAMENTALLY FORCED CHANGE OF WHITE ACADEMIC AMERICAN’S ATTITUDES BOTH TOWARD THE FUNCTION AND MEANING OF BLACK LITERATURE AND ART. ITS MAJOR THEMES WERE BEAUTY, LOVE, POWER AND REVOLUTION. MY DREAM GOES LIKE THIS—FORTY YEARS FROM NOW WHEN OUR YET TO BE BORN READ ABOUT HIP-HOP/RAP THE RECORDINGS WILL SAY “THE MOVEMENT FUNDAMENTALLY FORCED CHANGE OF WHITE AMERICAN’S ATTITUDES. ALTHOUGH IT SUFFERED SOME UPS AND DOWNS, IT EVOLVED FULL CIRCLE AND LEAD A MOVEMENT WHOS THEMES WERE BEAUTY, LOVE, POWER AND REVOLUTION.

IN THE WORDS OF SEKOU TOURE “TO US, REVOLUTION MEANS THE COLLECTIVE MOVEMENT INITIATED BY A GROUP OF MEN OR BY A WHOLE PEOPLE, AND SUPPORTED BY THEIR CONSCIOUS DETERMINATION TO CHANGE AN OLD DEGRADING ORDER INTO A NEW, PROGRESSIVE ORDER IN VIEW OF ENSURING THE SAFEGUARD AND DEVELOPMENT OF COLLECTIVE AND INDIVIDUAL INTERESTS, WITHOUT ANY DISCRIMINATION WHATSOEVER.

THE PEOPLE’S REVOLUTION, TO US, REMAINS THUS A COLLECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS IN MOTION, AND A COLLECTIVE MOVEMENT GUIDED BY CONSCIENCE AND WHOSE ULTIMATE AIM IS THE CONTINUED PROGRESS OF MAN AND THE PEOPLE.” (FROM: SEKOU TOURE REVOLUTION AND RELIGION—EXCERPTS FROM ENHANCING THE PEOPLE’S POWER).

DRAWING INSPIRATION FROM THE ORIGINAL BLACK PANTHER PARTY

THE INSPIRATION FOR THE RBG KNOWLEDGE DROP SQUAD CORE CURRICULUM HAS BEEN OUR YOUTH OF THE PAST-THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF-DEFENSE (BPP). DURING THE LATE 1960’S AND EARILY 1970’S THEIR COMMITMENT TO OUR COMMUNITIES INCLUDED HEALTH SCREENINGS, FOOD AND CLOTHING BANKS, CHILD AND YOUTH EDUCATION AND OF COURSE SELF-DEFENSE AGAINST POLICE BRUITALITY. MANY OF THEM WERE MURDER BY U.S. GOVERNMENT ASSAINS AND TERRORIST IN THE NAME OF THE F.B.I.’S COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE PROGRAM. true heroes, such as Black Panther founder Huey P. Newton, George Jackson and Jonathan Jackson, Bunchy Carter, John Huggins, Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, and so many others who gave their very lives to the black liberation struggle.

See My Video:RBG The Black Liberation Movement & Hip Hop Connected