June 2, 2012 9am – 5pm

For the GET HEALTHY Pasadena 2012

Schedule of Events

click here

This year, the Kind of Blue trumpeter will be immortalized in a collection of musically-themed stamps that will also honor the singer Edith Piaf, according to The Telegraph. They will be released in partnership with the French postal service, La Poste.

“This is a fitting honor,” said Lee Barham, chairman of the steering committee for the Miles Davis Jazz Celebration. “Before Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, there was Miles Davis.”

Davis, one of the most innovative figures in bebop and jazz fusion, died in 1991 at age 65. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.

Zuri: A Chicago Native

Her rhythm goes on.

After years of fine tuning her craft in music, television, commercials and plays, she’s written poetry, spoken word, a novel, screenplay and a series of short children’s stories.

Zuri a multi-talented artist has done voice over work, she paints, sculpts, she’s a natural hair stylist, fashion designer and has her own line of motivational tanks and tees

(Zuriology Designs With You In Mind)

Zuri have worked for various artist’s such as Michael Bolton, Chaka Khan, Brenton Wood, Vesta, Shirley Caesar, Brenton Wood, Brenda Holloway, Ramsey Lewis, DJ Rogers, Etta James. Solomon Burke and Jennifer Holiday to name a few.

It is no surprise how diverse and eclectic her writing and background credits are, having been inspired by various genres of music and musicians, including musicians she has worked with from Jamaica, Africa and Haiti, which inspired her to play percussion instruments, piano is her writing tool.

Zuri has written songs for some of Malaco Records true soul veterans such as Johnnie Taylor, Shirley Brown, Lattimore, King Floyd and others.

Her voice is heard on several Jimmy Lewis productions etc.

Zuri sang all background harmonies on the now classic “Soul Heaven” by the late great Johnnie Taylor and she penned the single “Too close for comfort” on his 2001 Grammy nominated album, “Gotta get the groove back”

Floyd Taylor son of Johnnie Taylor and Zuri had a number one duet on the Southern Soul Charts written by Rich Cason and Zuri titled,

“Baby I’ve Changed”

Zuri has opened for Bon Jovi and Jermaine Jackson at the San Juan Music in San Juan Puerto Rico,

Howard Hewett and Kevin Nash at the Warner Theater in San Pedro CA

She worked on the Master P and Romeo “Black History” video.

She also performed at the Asthma Allergy Foundation honoring Donald Sterling at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills CA

Zuri has an extensive discography.

Rasiah Record

]]> http://www.plazanoir.com/lou-beatty-jr-stars-in-nobody-walks-like-my-daddy/feed/ 0 http://www.plazanoir.com/newest-michigan-museum-showcases-racist-artifacts/ http://www.plazanoir.com/newest-michigan-museum-showcases-racist-artifacts/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 17:01:19 +0000 charles http://www.plazanoir.com/?p=7196

The objects displayed in Michigan’s newest museum range from the ordinary, such as simple ashtrays and fishing lures, to the grotesque—a full-size replica of a lynching tree. But all are united by a common theme: They are steeped in racism so intense that it makes visitors cringe.

That’s the idea behind the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which says it has amassed the nation’s largest public collection of artifacts spanning the segregation era, from Reconstruction until the civil rights movement, and beyond.

The museum in a gleaming new exhibit hall at Ferris State University “is all about teaching, not a shrine to racism,” said David Pilgrim, the founder and curator who started building the collection as a teenager.

Mr. Pilgrim, who is Black, makes no apologies for the provocative exhibits. The goal of the $1.3 million gallery, he explained, is “to get people to think deeply.”

The displays are startling. The n-word is prevalent throughout, and many items portray Black men as lazy, violent or inarticulate. Black women are shown as kerchief-wearing mammies, sexually charged Jezebels or other stereotypes.

The shocking images exact an emotional cost.

“There’s parts in that room—the main room—where it’s quite gut-wrenching,” said Nancy Mettlach, a student conduct specialist at Ferris. “And the thought that was going through my mind was: ‘How can one human being do this to another human being?’ ”

Mr. Pilgrim, a former sociology professor at Ferris State, started the collection in the 1970s in Alabama. Along the way, he “spent more time in antique and flea markets than the people who work there.” His quest for more examples was boundless.

“At some point, the collecting becomes the thing,” he said. “It became the way I relaxed.” He spent most of his free time and money on acquisitions.

In 1996, Mr. Pilgrim donated his 2,000-piece collection to the school after concluding that it “needed a real home.”

The collection spent the next 15 years housed in a single room and could be seen only by appointment. Thanks to the financial support of the university and donors—notably from the charitable arm of Detroit utility DTE Energy—Mr. Pilgrim’s collection now has a permanent home, which will have a grand opening ceremony April 26. Admission is free.

Today, the school has 9,000 pieces that depict African-Americans in stereotypical ways and, in some cases, glorify violence against them.

Not all of the museum’s holdings are on display, but the 3,500-square-foot space in the lower level of the university library is packed with items that demonstrate how racist ideas and anti-Black images dominated American culture for decades.

Visitors can forget about touring the exhibits and retiring untroubled to a cafe or gift shop. Some leave angry or offended. Most feel a kind of “reflective sadness,” Mr. Pilgrim said.

But that’s not enough. If the museum “stayed at that, then we failed,” he said. “The only real value of the museum has ever been to really engage people in a dialogue.”

So Mr. Pilgrim designed the tour to give visitors a last stop in a “room of dialogue,” where they’re encouraged to discuss what they’ve seen and how the objects might be used to promote tolerance and social justice.

One T-shirt on display reads: “Any White Guy 2012.” Another shirt that says “Obama ‘08” is accompanied by a cartoon monkey holding a banana. A mouse pad shows robe-wearing Ku Klux Klan members chasing an Obama caricature above the words, “Run Obama Run.”

One of the first rooms in the museum features a full-size replica of a tree with a lynching noose hanging from it. Several feet away, a television screen shows a video of racist images through the years.

The location of the museum—in the shadow of university founder Woodbridge Ferris’ statue—also catches some by surprise. The mostly White college town of Big Rapids is 150 miles from Detroit, the state’s largest predominantly Black city. (AP)

The UN has declared April 30 WORLD JAZZ DAY.  The kick-off concert will be tomorrow, Friday, April 27 in Paris.  Music Director John Beasley has programmed a terrific program featuring all-star musicians from all over the world.

Where….ever you are in the world…turn on your computers and LISTEN LIVE as the concert will be streamed -   Two other concerts in New York and New Orleans on Monday and others around the world.

Live Video Broadcasts:   http://jazzday.com/

Friday, April 27 – UNESCO, Paris: 8pm(CET)/2pm(EDT)
Sunday, April 30 – Congo Square, New Orleans: 8am(EDT)
Sunday, April 30 – United Nations, New York: 7:30pm(EDT)

Line UP 4 all 3 concerts: Herbie Hancock, John Beasley, Tony Bennett, George Benson, Terence Blanchard, Richard Bona, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Candido, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ron Carter, Gerald Clayton, Vinnie Colaiuta, Robert Cray, Eli Degibri, Jack DeJohnette, George Duke, Sheila E, Roland Guerin, Antonio Hart, Jimmy Heath, Barbara Hendricks, Hiromi, Zakir Hussain, Chaka Khan, Angelique Kidjo, Biréli Lagrène, Lang Lang, Lionel Loueke, Joe Lovano, Romero Lubambo, Ibrahim Maalouf, Shankar Mahadevan, Tania Maria, Ellis Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, Hugh Masekela, Christian McBride, China Moses, Danilo Perez, Dianne Reeves, Kermit Ruffins, Bobby Sanabria, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Bill Summers, Susan Tedeschi, Treme Brass Band, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Dr. Michael White, Ben Williams, Tarek Yamani and many more.

SUPPORT JAZZ MUSIC!

JOHN BEASLEY, MUSIC DIRECTOR – INAUGURAL PARIS CONCERT FOR INTERNATIONAL JAZZ DAY

In partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, the initiative – Hancock’s first major program introduced as a Goodwill Ambassador – will encourage and highlight intercultural dialogue and understanding through America’s greatest contribution to the world of music. International Jazz Day will foster and stimulate the teaching of jazz education with a particular emphasis placed on children from disadvantaged communities in classrooms around the world and will be offered to all 195 member states of UNESCO.

The celebration will kick-off on April 27 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris with a daylong series of jazz education programs and performances. An evening concert will feature Herbie Hancock, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Marcus Miller, Hugh Masekela, Lionel Loueke, Tania Maria, Barbara Hendricks, Gerald Clayton, Terri Lyne Carrington, China Moses, Ben Williams, Antonio Hart, and others. John Beasley will serve as Musical Director. The daytime events will include masterclasses, roundtable discussions, improvisational workshops, and various other activities.

International Jazz Day will be celebrated by millions worldwide on Monday, April 30 and will begin with a sunrise concert in New Orleans’ Congo Square, the birthplace of jazz. The event will feature a number of jazz luminaries along with Hancock including Dianne Reeves, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, New Orleans natives Terence Blanchard, Ellis Marsalis, Kermit Ruffins, Bill Summers, Treme Brass Band, Dr. Michael White, Luther Gray, and Roland Guerin.

The worldwide programs and events will conclude in New York City at the United Nations General Assembly Hall with an historic sunset concert certain to be one of the most heralded jazz celebrations of all time, with confirmed artists including Richard Bona (Cameroon), Dee Dee Bridgewater, Danilo Perez, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Jack DeJohnette, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Heath, Zakir Hussain (India), Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Lang Lang (China), Romero Lubambo (Brazil), Shankar Mahadevan (India), Wynton Marsalis, Hugh Masekela (South Africa), Christian McBride, Dianne Reeves, Wayne Shorter, Esperanza Spalding, Hiromi (Japan) and others to be announced. George Duke will serve as Musical Director. Confirmed Co-Hosts include Robert DeNiro, Michael Douglas, Morgan Freeman and Quincy Jones.

PARIS EVENTS: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/international-jazz-day/main-events/paris-france/

This is an intensely personal film about children seeking to understand their parents, but it is also a heartbreaking portrait of the legacy of intolerance. In 1965, documentary filmmaker Frank DeFelitta traveled to Mississippi to shoot a film on the subject of racism in the American South. As he went about observing life in Mississippi and interviewing the locals, Frank was introduced to an African-American waiter named Booker Wright. With utter candor and a brazen lack of concern for his own well-being, Booker appeared on tape in the documentary and spoke openly and honestly about the realities of living in a racist society. This brief interview forever changed the lives of Booker and his family, and more than 40 years later, Frank’s son Raymond DeFelitta (director of City Island) returns to the site of his father’s film to examine the repercussions of this fateful interview.

Presented with a deep sense of compassion and respect, DeFelitta’s film is an unforgettable examination of the life of an ordinary man who changed the world around him when he decided to speak out and tell the truth.

–William Goldberg

About The Director

Raymond De Felitta was nominated for an Oscar in 1990 for his AFI thesis short, Bronx Cheers. His 1995 film Cafe Society premiered at Directors Fortnight. His indie Two Family House won the Sundance Audience Award, and his 2009 feature City Island won the TFF Audience Award.

Pasadena Community Coalition member Martin Gordon asked the crowd to flood City Hall and the Pasadena Police Department with letters, phone calls and emails to “let them know we want justice for Kendrec McDade.”
Gordon said the McDade shooting mirrors other officer involved slayings of black men in the U.S. such as the Kenneth Chamberlain shooting in New York and said the the killings illustrate to him the lack of value placed on the lives of minorities.
“If you devalue black people and people of color, then it’s open season,” he said.
Several in the crowd held signs memorializing other black men killed by Pasadena police since 1993. The shooting has shaken Pasadena and reopened old wounds from previous slayings of black men at the hands of the city’s police officers.
Among those recalled were barber Michael James Bryant. He was killed after being tased and hogtied before being thrown in the back of a police cruiser where he suffocated to death.
Leroy Barnes was also memorialized in a sign, Barnes was shot to death by Pasadena police officers 2009 during a routine traffic stop. The officers believed Barnes was going to shoot them.
Some likened the McDade incident to a modern day lynching and called onetime Azusa High School football player’s slaying at the hands of police a murder.
“This murder of this young man is part of murders going on across the country,” said Qwazi Nkrumah, from Occupy Los Angeles and Occupy the Hood.
For long-time resident and member of the Pasadena-branch NAACP Gary Moody the McDade shooting rings eerily familiar.
“We are still fighting the same institutional racism,” Moody said. “We are fighting some of the same battles we fought in 1965.”
The McDade family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and its police department on April 3. The family’s attorney, Caree Harper, continued her calls for a U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division probe into the shooting, even as four current investigations – two by county agencies, one by the Pasadena Police Department and one by the FBI – are underway.
“Not to disrespect any other agency, but I am asking for the Civil Rights Division to investigate,” Harper said.
“There is a cover up. We need to get to the bottom of this,” she added.
On Tuesday, more descriptions of evidence in the case began to emerge. Many of those descriptions were contained in the minutes of a secret meeting held by Pasadena police Chief Phillip Sanchez for a select group of civic leaders.
What was previously described as video surveillance from a nearby building of McDade and a 17-year-old teen allegedly stealing a backpack from Oscar Carrillo’s car was in fact still photographs, according to minutes taken by Pasadena-branch NAACP vice president James Smith.
Sanchez’s statements to the community group Saturday marked a departure from earlier comments made to the press on March 28 when the police chief said unequivocally that the alleged burglary and McDade’s role as a lookout in the crime had been captured on videotape.
The department has declined to release the photos.
One participant at Saturday’s meeting said the use of still photographs to secure a building struck him as odd.
“I don’t know why someone would have a time lapse camera at their place for security, Scott Sudduth said. “It sounded weird.”
Sanchez did not specify how many photographs were taken, nor did he comment on the amount of time lapsed between each of the photographs.
During the Saturday session, Sanchez also told community members that police had recovered the backpack allegedly stolen by McDade and a 17-year-old accomplice.
“The minor took them on a ride-along and showed the cops where he stashed the bag,” Sudduth said.
However, the laptop computer and two cell phones Carrillo reported stolen in the incident have not been located, according to Sudduth.
The Saturday meeting was the third secret meeting between Sanchez and select members of the community. He spoke with clergy members on March 27 and met with Latino leaders on April 5. The police chief did hold a public meeting March 31 and has made himself available to broadcast media. He was a special guest on Earl Ofari Hutchinson KPFK radio show and has been interviewed by several television outlets.
Sanchez and Pasadena police Lt. Phlunte Riddle declined to comment for this story.
Carrillo’s admittedly false claims to a 9-1-1 dispatcher set off the series of events leading up to McDade’s death. Pasadena cops raced to the scene and began a pursuit of McDade and a 17-year-old boy whom Carrillo accused of robbing him at gunpoint. Carrillo, an undocumented alien who was deported in 2006 but returned to the U.S., admitted to lying to the dispatcher about the gun to expedite the police officers arrival to the scene.
During the March 28 press conference, Sanchez told the media that Carrillo’s fabrication contributed to the slaying by setting in the officers mind that McDade was armed.
Carrillo’s attorney Andres Bustamante claims his client is being made a scapegoat and like Harper said the ultimate responsibility for killing McDade lies with the cops.
Pasadena police officers insists McDade was reaching for his waistband prior to the shooting, a furtive motion which prompted cops to fire.
Harper and Pasadena-branch NAACP President Joe Brown dispute this claim.
Brown said the police are resorting to a “standard defense in the shooting of black teenagers.”
Given how dark it is along Sunset Avenue at night, the police can’t say unequivocally that McDade was reaching for his waistband, Harper said. The police department acknowledges the officer never turned on their lights and sirens and never shone a light on McDade.
According to the federal civil rights lawsuit filed by the family, the officers never told McDade to freeze nor did they identify themselves.
With gaps in the story line, Sudduth questioned whether the public would ever know why Pasadena cops shot and killed McDade on March 24. Sanchez didn’t give any additional information to that end during the private Saturday meeting.
“Sanchez didn’t get into detail about the (officer) in the car and the (officer) who was running on why they needed to fire on this kid,” Sudduth said. “This wasn’t a carjacking, why did they feel the needed to shoot?”

Written, arranged, produced & recorded by Darryl Duncan, “18″ is dedicated to the memory of Trayvon Martin and ALL the young lives cut short by violence.

This song is available for purchase on iTunes, Amazon mp3, Spotify and other music sites. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to the “Stop The Violence” campaign. Show your support for this very important cause by purchasing this song. Thank you.

For more information, email: 18@flowcag.com
Copyrighted Material 2012 – Corkroom Music Publishing – ASCAP