January 19, 2009
*President-elect Barack Obama’s inaugural ball for the military, to be headlined by Jon Bon Jovi and emceed by comedian George Lopez, will be broadcast to American troops stationed around the world. Jordin Sparks, Miss America 2009 Kirsten Haglund and the group Right On are scheduled to perform. The Presidential Inaugural Committee said Friday that the Commander in Chief ball would be broadcast live on the Pentagon Channel to military bases overseas. Tickets will be free to invited guests in the military, families of fallen troops and spouses of deployed soldiers.
*Television networks paid more than $5 million for exclusive rights to show events surrounding President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration, including Sunday’s Lincoln Memorial concert and the Neighborhood Ball where Beyonce will serenade the new first couple. Nearly half the money, $2.5 million, was paid by HBO to broadcast Sunday’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Obama’s inaugural committee said the Walt Disney Co. is paying $2 million to show Tuesday’s Neighborhood Ball on ABC and for a kids’ concert Monday on The Disney Channel. MTV is paying $650,000 for a Youth Ball that will be shown worldwide.
*President-elect Barack Obama has laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery after a short ride from Blair House. Obama, holding his hand over his heart, was joined at the tomb by Vice President-elect Joe Biden and Gen. Richard Rowe, commander of the U.S. Army Military District of Washington. Visitors to the hallowed burial grounds cheered Obama’s limousine as it passed by under cloudy skies Sunday morning.
*Barack Obama’s inauguration address will call on Americans to embrace a new era of responsible behavior, both in government and in business, according to Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s choice for chief of staff. He says Obama’s speech Tuesday will ask the nation to reject the “culture of anything goes” and ask Americans to restore a national value system that honors responsibility and accountability. It harkens back to John F. Kennedy’s call for personal sacrifice in his 1960 inauguration address. Press secretary Robert Gibbs says the president-elect wrote out the bulk of the speech as it is now.
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Paul W. Gillespie — The Capital
Dr. Joan Gaither shows guest quilters the parts of the quilt that documents President-elect Barack Obama’s life and his political journey. The stitching event was held Wednesday at the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center in Annapolis. Another stitching event is set for today at the Banneker-Douglass Museum, 84 Franklin St., Annapolis
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The public took part in the creation of a story quilt documenting Barack Obama’s life story and political journey by adding their own stitches. The event was at the Wiley H. Bates Legacy Center in Annapolis.
Annapolis artist creates quilt, stitching is today at museum
By HEATHER ROTH Staff writer
Published January 17, 2009
Dr. Joan Gaither just wanted to tell a story.
In June, while watching President-elect Barack Obama campaign for the presidency and a chance to make history, she thought of other African-American presidential hopefuls who hadn’t made it even that far.
Impressed by his success, she began stitching a quilt.
“I decided this is one of those stories that needs to be told,” Dr. Gaither said. “That will allow me to tell the total journey.”
Called “Journey to the White House,” the quilt has 24 squares, each marking a moment in Mr. Obama’s life – or in some cases the lives of African-Americans who came before him – along the road to the presidency.
“I have to tell you, when I first started (the quilt), it didn’t even enter my mind what I would do with it. I just felt compelled to tell the story.”
The outermost border is an African fabric; a row of pins signifies the pain of being wrenched from one’s home; a border of blue fabric portrays the journey to North America, and immediately afterward a strip of red and black signifies the lost lives.
“Things kept changing, so the quilt continually evolved,” Dr. Gaither said.
There are squares representing Mr. Obama’s family members; pieces of legislation he introduced while a senator in Illinois; or words of wisdom.
When the quilt was finished, Dr. Gaither took it to her community, offering people a chance to add stitches or their own thoughts.
“I opened up the conversation, if you will, to the Obama quilt,” she said. “I cried after the very first day, looking at what people had written. It just brought me to tears. It’s an emotional time for many people.”
It’s an emotional time for Dr. Gaither, too.
Living through the Civil Rights era, she remembers being kicked out of Glen Burnie establishments due to her race.
“I wrote on (the quilt), ‘It’s a privilege to live to see this moment in my lifetime,” she said.
This isn’t the first “story quilt” Dr. Gaither has made. A fiber-artist for decades, Dr. Gaither learned the art of traditional quilting from her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.
But when her aunt who was the keeper of the family history died suddenly, Dr. Gaither wanted to find a way keep that history alive.
“You start with yourself, and that is what my first quilt was about. Me – a self portrait – and my family. Then I started telling stories about other people beyond my family,” she said.
For Dr. Gaither, the quilts she makes can be intensely personal and also cathartic.
One quilt, made two or three years ago, helped her unburden herself of the pain caused by racism.
“It’s a powerful, powerful little quilt,” she said.
Held together entirely by pins rather than stitches, she called it “How much longer?”
“Once I put that quilt out, it was like huge catharsis. The anger that was pent up in me was immediately released. I can’t tell you what an experience that was,” she said.
Most importantly, Dr. Gaither hopes her quilts inspire others to take the time to get to know their own heritage. She particularly hopes her “Journey to the White House” quilt will be an inspiration.
“I’d like (the quilt) to be in a position where many people could see it across the U.S.,” she said.
“(I want to) get people to come together, be inspired by the story that’s there, but to stop a moment and reflect on their own stories.”
The quilt is a chance to think about the people who have shaped each individual person, she said, or how to be a better person.
“It’s about bringing people together in a harmonious way. Quilting does that,” she said.
Community members will have one more chance to add their words and stitches to the quilt.
The Banneker-Douglass Museum is holding a stitching from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. today. Immediately after that ends, the quilt will be hung at the museum.
January 19, 2009
*As we move forward in this new year, we’re bringing you some changes as well. Presenting the EURthisNthat blog.
Just like the name implies, this blog is all about bringing you a variety of interesting stories and points of views.
Yep, some this and some of that, if you will. From the silly/stupid to the sublime and everything in between.
Here are some recent headlines for you to click on to check out and enjoy:
Posted by JB
You are about to read a wonderful “kick-off” to the Inauguration weekend as well as Presidency. If you haven’t read this most poignant, hopeful, ”call to arms,” now is the time. Dr. Andrew Manis is a professor of history at Macon State College and is the author of several books that focus on race relations and civil rights history in the U.S. But, coincidentally, he’s in Greece travelling on a Fulbright scholarship and won’t be teaching Spring 2009.
This essay is most powerful because its words cannot be shrugged off as another emotional, baseless, rant by a black person. It’s actually overwhelming to read some of our most valuable questions asked by one of our white brothers that actually have a thorough, yet thoughtful, lucid understanding of what we try to convey as our issue with racism everyday. I won’t keep you from it another moment. Enjoy:
When Are WE Going to Get Over It?
For much of the last forty years, ever since America “fixed” its race problem in the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, we white people have been impatient with African Americans who continued to blame race for their difficulties. Often we have heard whites ask, “When are African Americans finally going to get over it?
Now I want to ask: “When are we White Americans going to get over our ridiculous obsession with skin color?
Recent reports that “Election Spurs Hundreds’ of Race Threats, Crimes” should frighten and infuriate every one of us. Having grown up in “Bombingham,” Alabama in the 1960s, I remember overhearing an avalanche of comments about what many white classmates and their parents wanted to do to John and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Eventually, as you may recall, in all three cases, someone decided to do more than “talk the talk.”
Since our recent presidential election, to our eternal shame we are once again hearing the same reprehensible talk I remember from my boyhood.
We white people have controlled political life in the disunited colonies and United States for some 400 years on this continent. Conservative whites have been in power 28 of the last 40 years. Even during the eight Clinton years, conservatives in Congress blocked most of his agenda and pulled him to the right. Yet never in that period did I read any headlines suggesting that anyone was calling for the assassinations of presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, or either of the Bushes. Criticize them, yes. Call for their impeachment, perhaps.
But there were no bounties on their heads. And even when someone did try to kill Ronald Reagan, the perpetrator was a non-political mental case who wanted merely to impress Jody Foster.
But elect a liberal who happens to be Black and we’re back in the sixties again. At this point in our history, we should be proud that we’ve proven what conservatives are always saying -that in America anything is possible, EVEN electing a black man as president. But instead we now hear that schoolchildren from Maine to California are talking about wanting to “assassinate Obama.”
Fighting the urge to throw up, I can only ask, “How long?” How long before we white people realize we can’t make our nation, much less the whole world, look like us? How long until we white people can -once and for all- get over this hell-conceived preoccupation with skin color? How long until we white people get over the demonic conviction that white skin makes us superior? How long before we white people get over our bitter resentments about being demoted to the status of equality with non-whites?
How long before we get over our expectations that we should be at the head of the line merely because of our white skin? How long until we white people end our silence and call out our peers when they share the latest racist jokes in the privacy of our white-only conversations?
I believe in free speech, but how long until we white people start making racist loudmouths as socially uncomfortable as we do flag burners? How long until we white people will stop insisting that blacks exercise personal responsibility, build strong families, educate themselves enough to edit the Harvard Law Review, and work hard enough to become President of the United States, only to threaten to assassinate them when they do?
How long before we start “living out the true meaning” of our creeds, both civil and religious, that all men and women are created equal and that “red and yellow, black and white” all are precious in God’s sight?
Until this past November 4, I didn’t believe this country would ever elect an African American to the presidency. I still don’t believe I’ll live long enough to see us white people get over our racism problem. But here’s my three-point plan:
First, everyday that Barack Obama lives in the White House that Black Slaves Built I’m going to pray that God (and the Secret Service) will protect him and his family from us white people.
Second, I’m going to report to the FBI any white person I overhear saying, in seriousness or in jest, anything of a threatening nature about President Obama.
Third, I’m going to pray to live long enough to see America surprise the world once again, when white people can “in spirit and in truth” sing of our damnable color prejudice, “We HAVE overcome.”
-Dr. Andrew Manis
January 19, 2009
*The Hip Hop 101 Music & Arts Festival (www.hh101.com) will celebrate Black History Month with Ludacris, Common, and turntableist Mix Master Mike of the Beastie Boys on Saturday Feb. 21 at the Los Angeles Sports Arena starting at 6:30 p.m.
Also included on the bill are R&B singer and songwriter Keri Hilson and Grammy-nominated alternative singer Janelle Monae.
“Hip Hop 101 Music & Arts Festival is our way to acknowledge the achievements of every artist by creating a platform and embracing Hip Hop’s culture and unity through the expression of music, beats, graffiti, visual arts, performing arts and lyrics,” explained executive producer Ken Andrews, who is handling the event with investor/presenter Derek Patterson, Arias Webster and producer/production manager Sid Zuber.
The show will also include live graffiti artists, visual arts installations and a dance competition by Millennium Dance Complex. Winners of the competition will be given a scholarship by Hip Hop 101 Music & Arts Festival.
DWAYNE WADE DRAMA JUMPS OFF: Wife of Miami Heat baller says he gave her an unspecified STD.
January 19, 2009
*In most people’s minds, Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade is a “good guy.” However, if you ask his wife, Siohvaughn, who he’s divorcing, he’s anything but.
And it’s not because he filed papers on her; he petitioned for the divorce in May of 2007 in Cook County, Ill. The couple wed in Chicago on May 18, 2002. They were high school sweethearts.
He “abandoned his children, committed adultery, and infected her with an unspecified sexually transmitted disease,” Siohvaughn alleges in legal papers.” She wants the names of “all of his sexual partners” during their six-year marriage, according to the Miami Herald.
“These malicious allegations are absolutely false and we look forward to the opportunity to dispute them in court, according to D Wade’s Chicago based attorney, James Pritikin.
Siohvaughn & Dwayne Wade in happier times
Dwyane Wade turned 27 on Saturday. He and Siohvaughn, 27, have two boys, Zaire, a first-grader who will be 7 next month, and Zion, 1. Siohvaughn moved back to Chicago with the two boys last year.
Dwyane Wade’s Heat salary is $14,410,581, according to published reports. He makes millions more from major endorsements such as Gatorade, Converse and T-Mobile.
The Heat guard has been romantically linked to actress Gabrielle Union, 36, once married to former Jacksonville Jaguar Chris Howard.
According to Siohvaughn’s legal filing:
“Dwyane has dissipated substantial sums of marital property including … buying his mother a $2 million church; placing substantial sums of money in an account with another woman; providing numerous friends and family members with unfettered access to accounts with hundreds of thousands of dollars of marital funds from which they made substantial withdrawals …”
But while he was being a super-sugar daddy to everybody else, she says, he cut her off financially.
Dwyane Wade, named a “father of the Year” in 2007 by the National Father’s Day Committee, has gone “months” without seeing his boys, Siohvaughn says. His “failure to spend time with them … has resulted in the children at times being afraid of him; in fact, Zion … does not recognize or know Dwyane.” She wants sole custody, and support.
She also says she has suffered “grievous physical, emotional and mental injury” from the STD, diagnosed in the fall of ‘07. (The infection is not HIV or a “killer thing,” sources say.) Dwyane and his “paramour or paramours” are liable, Siohvaughn alleges.
“It is sad that an obviously angry and bitter woman will go to any lengths to publicly damage Mr. Wade,” attorney Pritikin responded.
“A person’s public persona does not necessarily reflect his behavior in private,” Siohvaughn Chicago attorney Dorene Marcus responds. “Mrs. Wade is prepared to prove everything she alleges. And, medical records don’t lie.”
January 19, 2009
*An advertised after-party in Brooklyn for the premiere of Biggie Smalls’ biopic “Notorious” ended in violence Saturday when four men were stabbed and hospitalized, reports the Associated Press.
Police said a 21-year-old victim stabbed numerous times was in critical condition at Brookdale Hospital. Three others were stable.
The incident took place at the Djumbala club, located in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn. Police did not immediately release further information.
While the event had been promoted as the “official” after-party, “Notorious” distributor, Fox Searchlight, said it was not related.
January 19, 2009
*Oprah Winfrey has made her first public comments about a former guest who lied about meeting his future wife in a Nazi concentration camp.
On her talk show Friday, the entertainer said she was “very disappointed” in the now discredited story of Herman Rosenblat, a 79-year-old resident of North Miami Beach, Fla., who claimed that a little girl throwing apples over a barbed-wire fence to him every day at a sub-camp of Buchenwald in the 1940s ended up being his wife.
“They have been married for 50 years and he was, indeed, in a concentration camp and so was she,” Winfrey explained. But that was about all that was true of the story.
Berkley Books, an imprint of Penguin Group (USA), was scheduled to release Rosenblat’s memoir “Angel at the Fence” in February. But after scholars, friends and family members challenged him, Rosenblat acknowledged the story was untrue and Berkley pulled the book.
“That’s what happens with lies,” Winfrey said of the couple, who have appeared twice on her show. “They get bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Winfrey’s best friend, Gayle King, said on Friday’s show that Rosenblat’s story also disappointed her. But King took issue with some media outlets apparently saying Winfrey again has been deceived.
“I was very disappointed because when the story first broke, the big headline was `Oprah Duped Again,’” King said. “I called Oprah and I said, `I’m so tired of you being the whipping boy for this hoax because he didn’t just dupe you — he duped a lot of people.’”
January 19, 2009
*A British photographer said Sunday he had been beaten up and punched repeatedly by the wife of Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe as he was trying to snap photos of her in Hong Kong, reports AFP.
Grace Mugabe, 43, flew into a rage when she saw photographer Richard Jones waiting outside as she left the five-star Kowloon Shangri-la Hotel with a female friend and a bodyguard in the southern Chinese city on Thursday.
Jones was about 20 feet away from Mugabe when she told her bodyguard to attack him, said Michael Sheridan, The Sunday Times correspondent who joined the photographer seconds after the assault.
“The bodyguard grabbed Mr. Jones, wrestled with him, attempted to take his camera. He then held him while Mrs. Mugabe struck him in the face repeatedly,” Sheridan said.
“She was completely deranged, absolutely raging with anger,” Jones, chief photographer of Hong Kong-based Sinopix photo agency, told AFP.
Jones said he went to see a doctor afterwards and was diagnosed as suffering from numerous bruises, cuts, and abrasions to his head and face.
“The cuts and bruises allegedly caused by the First Lady… were due to the diamond rings on her fingers,” he said.
Three or four large African bodyguards appeared from the hotel and tried to approach Jones following the assault. But they were stopped by security officers at Tsim Sha Tsui Centre near the hotel, Sheridan said.Police were later called to the scene and took a statement from Jones.
The Sunday Times said Mugabe’s trip to Hong Kong was part of a Far East holiday with her family. She had been in Singapore with her husband before flying to Hong Kong on January 9, the report said.
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*Prosecutors have begun investigating whether to charge ex-heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and a photographer for a fight at Los Angeles International Airport.
*Oprah Winfrey’s much-anticipated interview of Sarah Palin brought her talk show its highest ratings in two years.
*In a recent radio interview with Atlanta’s The Bert Show, Janet Jackson refered to Jermaine Dupri as her “ex,” despite recent reports that the two were back together (and had never been apart) after previous rumors suggested they had broken up.
*”The Wendy Williams Show” has been renewed on Fox TV stations through the 2011-12 season, even though ratings in most markets have been modest, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
*The Los Angeles city attorney wants back the $3 million it shelled out for Michael Jackson’s memorial at the Staples Center, a spokesman said Monday, despite an audit concluding the event generated even more revenue for the city.
*Despite losing an earlier court battle, the father of Michael Jackson will try again to challenge the two businessman named as executors of his son’s estate – this time by trying to prove that his son’s will was forged.
*Janet Jackson made a surprise appearance at Los Angeles mall The Grove last weekend to personally witness a flash mob that featured a choreographed number to her greatest hits. [click title link to watch video.]
*Allhiphop.com is reporting that the mothers of rappers T-Pain, Lil Wayne and R&B singer Ne-Yo have teamed to launch their own talk show entitled “Dinner Table Discussions.”
*What in the hell is goin’ on in the ATL? Are the high school kids down there that gangsta? If you had to judge from this incident in suburban Atlanta, you would think that the kids are completely out of control. [click title link to watch video.]
*Director Lee Daniels says he felt compelled to bring the story of child abuse to the big screen in “Precious” because it helped heal the scars from his own painful past.
*Oprah Winfrey gave Robin Givens a lengthy apology on her live show last Friday over the manner in which she dealt (or didn’t deal) with a comment made last month by the actress’ ex-husband Mike Tyson.
*The latest party to file a creditor’s claim against Michael Jackson’s estate is the law firm that represented him against Debbie Rowe in 2005.
*50 Cent will play Santa for single mothers this holiday season as part of “50’s Money For Moms” contest, in conjunction with BET.
*Chris Brown got an earful of judgment from a woman during a public promo appearance in New York last week. [click title link to watch video]
*The reality show filmed by Shaquille and Shaunie O’Neal before their marriage took a decisive turn last week may find its way to at least one network still willing to give it a chance.
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*Rapper Mos Def, a jazz fan who often incorporates the music in his records, has been booked for this summer’s Newport jazz festival in Rhode Island, organizers announced Wednesday.
*Apparently black-on-black love doesn’t exist in Walt Disney’s world. At least, that’s what critics of the studio’s first animated film starring a black princess are claiming after finding out that the prince in the story is not also black.
*In Jacksonville, there’s an African American 14-year old working at improving the surgical procedure for stitching up a woman after a hysterectomy. Of all things that 14-year old young men are thinking of, surgical procedures just don’t come to mind as being in the top 10.
*John Legend will keep things as green as possible while touring over 50 cities this summer in support of his latest album, “Evolver.”
*Usher is teaming up with the United Nations Foundation and its Nothing But Nets campaign to create a platform for underprivileged youth to take action through service and make a difference with global i
*The exclamation “aha” has been in existence for many years, but was anyone saying “Aha moment” before Oprah Winfrey? And did the talk show host ever bother to trademark the phrase? Mutual of Omaha is about to find out.
*Opening statements began Friday in the civil trial against Snoop Dogg, who is accused of severely beating up a man during a 2005 concert in Seattle.
*While Michael Jackson was inside of Cedars Sinai hospital in Beverly Hills Wednesday waiting for his ride, the ride was busy sideswiping a parked ambulance and then taking off.
*While promoting a new documentary about his life, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson was inevitably asked this week about the situation regarding Chris Brown, who has two felony charges.
Published reports say he owes at least $21,403.98 in back mortgage payments, and he’s officially been warned by the bank that foreclosure is next. It’s also being reported that he owes more than $500,000 in back taxes!
*Prince is being sued by a literary agency over his coffee table book “21 Nights,” a multimedia photo essay collection documenting his 21-night residency at London’s O2 Arena.
*While we so were focused on the captain of the U.S. cargo ship that was rescued from the Somali pirates, our attention was diverted from the very person that lead the charge to get him back to his family. Rear Admiral Michelle Howard who took command of the Navy’s counter piracy task force only three days before the pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama and snagged the captain as a hostage.
*Guess which network has decided not to air President Obama’s prime time address tomorrow night? And the news-less CW doesn’t count.
*This should be one of our “Jokey Jokes,” but it appears that this is a very real and serious slice of documentary that is trying to make the case that President Obama has learned hypnosis techniques to captivate the world.
*Hot off the press and in book stores Wednesday is “Female Force: Michelle Obama,” a new comic book about the nation’s first lady “as she secures her place in American history,” Bluewaters Productions tells USA Today.
*Nearly 30 percent of Americans in a new poll believe that Fox News Channel is extra critical of President Barack Obama, however, the voting results reflect a partisan divide.
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