From Dr. Mark Villacorta at the University of Michigan:
On Thursday, October 30, Paul Flores, Julio Cardenas and Tanya Orellana brought ¡Representa! to the University of Michigan. They performed to a capacity crowd full of students, faculty, staff and community members.
One of the most special things about the event was that it would not have happened without financial and logistical help of several incredible people, including Jeff Kass, Vanessa Diaz, Professor Ruth Behar and of course, the good people at Campus Progress. Seven other departments and offices also supported the event, which was the final program for Hispanic Heritage Month 2008.
The audience responded with cheers, laughter and applause as Paul and Julio told their bilingual tale about Cuban Hip Hop, struggle, friendship and community.
The program embodied the true spirit of independent Hip Hop, roots that often get lost underneath today’s commercialized, hypersexualized and ultraviolent landscape that dominates the culture today.
We were honored to host such an original and inspiring event and we are most grateful to everyone at Campus Progress for making it happen… best wishes to all for 2009 and beyond.
From Campus Progress Student Organizer Kambale Musavuli:
On October 23, 2008, as part of "Breaking the Silence: Congo Week", spoken word artist Kahlil Almustafa joined students at NC A&T State University for a night of poetic protest against the atrocities taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
An open-mic night of local artists and students precedeed the unforgettable perfomance by the notorious poet Kahlil.
As Kahlil perfomed in front of a crowd of nearly 300 students, he reminded them of the importance of activism and standing up against injustic and oppression. See below for pictures from the event:
Poet Kahlil Almustafa and Visual Artists Ayinde Purnell
Student Organizer Kambale Musavuli and Kahlil Almustafa
From Alexandra Klestadt, writer for the Trinity Tripod of Trinity University:
Current issues involving sweatshop labor in the United States go surprisingly unrecognized. On Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008 Carmencita (Chie) Abad, along with Campus Progress and the Global Exchange alliance, spoke to Trinity students about her experience working under such conditions. Abad was brought to Trinity by Campus Progress and Director of the Women & Gender Resource Action Center (WGRAC) Laura Lockwood, in conjunction with the Women, Gender, and Sexuality (WGS), International Studies, Public Policy and Law, Political Science Departments, and the Ivy Society.
Surprisingly, the job in which Abad was employed, and spent upwards of $5,000 to attain, was in a U.S. commonwealth. Despite fervent labor laws in the United States, commonwealth areas such as Saipan, in the Pacific Island region, go under the radar.
Abad knows firsthand what it is like to work in a sweatshop. She spent six years as a garment worker in Saipan. During that time, she endured wretched working conditions, frequently working 14-hour shifts in dangerous conditions. "If we were stitching, for example, an arm sleeve onto the main part of the shirt," she recalled, "the supervisor would say that we had to complete 100 an hour. But you knew, we knew, that this was not possible. You could make 90, on a good day. Then you had to do overtime to make up the 10 lost each hour - for free."
When one of these supervisors noticed that she could practice a relatively sophisticated level of math, she was immediately promoted. That was week two. Even as a low-level supervisor, however, she encountered the same challenges. The chain of command was organized such that each employee struggled to meet the arbitrary quotas of the Sako Corporation (the primary licensee of The Gap).
Workers lived in the equivalent of bunkers, with about 50 women to a room sharing just one hose as a shower. Abad explained that men and women were not permitted to fall in love, to get married, to become pregnant, or to join any religious organizations. Abad, understanding that there were venerable issues within what we know as a code of International Human rights, moved to unionize. The Gap, which she worked for primarily during her time there, quickly shut her down. Rather than return to her family and home in the Philippines, Abad has set forth to educate Americans of the injustices practiced on U.S. soil.
At the close of her talk, Abad called for change, citing a project she did with University of Connecticut students in a study of university bookstore merchandise. "Do you have Jansport backpacks? Champion sweatshirts?" she asked. "These are the things we made. We do not boycott at 'World Exchange,' but you must see that this is wrong."
She encouraged a cooperative to unionize Trinity's employees, including those working for Chartwells. Abad continues to work with American college and university campuses in order to offer rights to all workers.
Abad has come a long way since leaving Saipan. Upon her arrival to the United Sates she set forth to tell the world her story. Joining the World Exchange organization and approaching several other persons, she was able to file suits against many of the corporations who licensed products which were made under sweatshop conditions. Gaining a large settlement from companies like J.C. Penney, Sears, and The Gap, she pushed for medical benefits, subsidized wages, and has ensured personal and religious rights for employees in Saipan.
Leaving the Rittenberg Lounge, I did what Chie encouraged me to do during her presentatation; it turned out my shirt was made by one of the multiple companies Abad has named. Time to pay a little more attention on that next shopping trip or even the Trinity College Bookstore.
On December 4, 2008, the Office for Diversity and Equal Opportunity at Yale, and Campus Progress hosted a lecture entitled, "Free Black Men: Reflections on Race and Masculinity in the Age of Obama," delivered by Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, Professor of African-American Studies at Yale University. Her lecture explored the emerging possibilities for the various projects of black male self-making in the wake of Obama's historic victory. She traced moments in the history of black men where their insurgent modes of being exploded static categories of masculinity and allowed for ways to love and cherish, lead and follow, be beautiful and proud, strong and vulnerable. In the recent explosion of particularly narrow categorizations of black male possibilities, Dr. Alexander argues that Obama represents a paradigm shift that must be appreciated for the freedom his example can afford many black men. And perhaps most importantly, Dr. Alexander drew an irreducible connection between the advances of black feminist theory and this project of free black manhood, arguing that black feminism is responsible for both the analytic tools and cultural resources with which to fully realize free black manhood in all of it's possible iterations.
Dr. Alexander, one of only four black women tenured as professors in Yale history, is an accomplished poet, essayist, and scholar. She is the author of five books of poems, including The Venus Hottentot (1990), Body of Life (1996), Antebellum Dream Book (2001), and a book for young adults, Miss Crandall's School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color (2007). Her most renowned work, American Sublime (2005), was one of the American Library Association's 25 Notable Books of the Year as well as one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize.
Her collection of essays on African American literature, painting, and popular culture, The Black Interior, was published in 2004, and a second collection of essays, Power and Possibility was released in 2007. Her verse play, "Diva Studies," was produced at the Yale School of Drama in May 1996. Dr. Alexander has taught at the University of Chicago, New York University's Graduate Creative Writing Program, and Smith College, where she was Grace Hazard Conkling Poet-in-Residence, first director of the Poetry Center at Smith College, and member of the founding editorial collective for the feminist journal Meridians.
Professor Alexander was an inaugural recipient of the Alphonse Fletcher, Sr. Fellowship for work that "contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954." In 2007, she was also awarded the first Jackson Prize for Poetry from Poets & Writers, Inc. The $50,000 prize honors an American poet of exceptional talent who has published at least one book of recognized literary merit but has not yet received major national acclaim.
Her national presence, however, is sure to change as she has just recently been selected to compose and deliver an original poem for the inauguration of the nation's first African-American president, Barack Obama. Alexander will be only the fourth poet to read at a swearing-in ceremony after Robert Frost, who read at John F. Kennedy's in 1961; Maya Angelou, who read at Clinton's in 1993; and Miller Williams, who read in 1997 for Clinton's second inaugural. Her selection has already been heralded by the London Guardian's Jay Parini as "an inspired choice" and the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation as "a perfect choice."
According to a Washington Post interview, Alexander has said, "I am obviously profoundly honored and thrilled...Not only to have a chance to have some small part of this extraordinary moment in American history. . . . This incoming president of ours has shown in every act that words matter, that words carry meaning, that words carry power, that words are the medium with which we communicate across difference and that words have tremendous possibilities, and those possibilities are not empty."
From Johanne Brier, New York Institute of Technology '09:
On November 3, 2008 more than sixty students gathered at New York University to discuss the issues most affecting their daily lives. Ebuka Onwubneme, a 21-year old Nigerian-born student listed immigration as her number one issue.
“Immigration is very important to me. It has impacted my life as a student for years. After I got into school, immigration laws affected the amount of financial aid I received and my eligibility for a number of scholarships. They also impact the types of jobs I can take to pay off my loans.”
The event brought together students from a variety of political, social and economic backgrounds with the aim to encourage those eligible, to vote. Organizer Johanne Brier, New York Institute of Technology '09 decided to organize the event for international students who felt “disengaged and disconnected from the voting process” .
NYU Communications Professor Will Baker, who presented at the event, opened by stating that he was "impressed to see such a diverse group of young people coming together on a Saturday night to talk about the importance of the election. When I look around the room, I can see that this election is truly about all of us and I commend you on taking action.”
“Even though I can’t vote, this will be the second election process I’ll see, said Joanna Francis, a 28 year-old student from Trinidad and Tobago studying at Kingsborough Community College. “Being here with all of you makes me feel like I am part of an amazing historical process.”
The event also featured an art exhibit from the New York Institute of Technology Fine Arts Department and a variety of spoken word performances.
From Kalamazoo College Senior Carolyn DeChants and Campus Progress Intern Annabell Gould:
On October 17, 2008 students gathered at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo MI for a screening of the film “Nobody’s Enemy: Youth Culture of Iran” and a performance by Iranian rapper Yas.
The event began with a presentation by the film’s creator, Neda Sarmast. Sarmast explained how her experiences as an Iranian-American motivated her to make a film presenting the Iranian youth to American audiences. After the film was screened, Sarmast answered questions from the audience and discussed methods of increasing cultural diplomacy without engaging in cultural imperialism.
Following the film screening, Yas performed for the crowd. Currently, Yas is one of the prominent faces in the Persian rap movement, a trend that reflects the Iranian’s youth desire to gain more freedom of expression in a religiously and culturally strict nation. Yas’ performance was powerful and his explanation of each song allowed the audience to understand the social and economic difficulties associated with growing up in Iran.
The event sparked thought-provoking discussion about Persian youth. Through expressing the Iranian youth movement via music and film, Yas and Neda Sarmast allowed students to see how the lives of their peers in Iran contrast with their own.
Writer, filmmaker and Morgan State University assistant professor M.K. Asante Jr. made an impassioned call for action at the Campus Progress sponsored release of his latest book titled “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop”. Asante insisted that ‘Artivists’ (artist + activists) have a responsibility to use creativity to encourage social change by any medium necessary.
Danielle Andrews-Lovell, student at Georgetown Law and co-organizer of the event, described “It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop” as the perfect example of this. Lovell calls the book a mixtape that intertwines hip hop lyrics and interviews conducted by Asante to protest the corporate controlled Hip Hop industry. Interviewees range from residents of low income communities to Chuck D and other prominent figures from the Hip Hop world.
To commemorate the seventh anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the Social Justice Film Series Community at Illinois State University and Campus Progress co-hosted the screening of “No End in Sight" .
“No End in Sight” tells the story of Iraq’s downward spiral after the U.S. invasion, highlighting the principal mistakes that the White House made both before and after the initial invasion.
Students stayed after the screening to discuss the themes presented in the film . The discussion centered on the amazement and disbelief that the students felt, having never heard of the issues the film brought forth. They also discussed how many of these problems could have been avoided.
The documentary was a useful means of raising awareness of social justice and student involvement on campus. The Social Justice Film Series will continue with the screening of “Sand and Sorrow” on October 9, 2008 at 7:30 p.m. in Capen Auditorium.
While the average citizen lives under the assumption that the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended two centuries ago, 27 million people—eighty percent women and girls—continue to be trafficked into sexual servitude and bonded labor today. On September 5 - 7, 2008 fifteen students from across America met in Washington, D.C. to form the National Student Coalition Against Slavery. Cosponsored by Campus Progress and Americans for Informed Democracy, the students made plans to solidify their activism across the country and bolster youth involvement in the international abolitionist movement.
During this three-day leadership retreat, they learned the finer points of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act from Karen Stauss, Lead Policy Counsel at the Polaris Project, as well as tips for helping survivors reclaim their lives from Amelia Korangy, Director of Development for the FAIR Fund. Professor Michele Clark, of the Elliot School of International Affairs at George Washington University, challenged students to envision a trafficking-free world and to hold our government and economic systems accountable for protection of our most basic human rights. Paula-Raye O’Sullivan, Events Associate at Campus Progress, led a workshop on attracting media to issue campaigns, and spoken-word duo Yellow Rage moved the room with poems of slavery and despair.
The coalition set consensus goals for moving forward and laid out strategies for meeting these goals on their individual campuses. Through synchronized and targeted efforts, the National Student Coalition Against Slavery will fuel a student-led anti-trafficking movement in Massachusetts, Connecticut, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Missouri, Texas, California and Washington. They are supported by Americans for Informed Democracy, Polaris Project, FAIR Fund, and Free The Slaves. For more information visit www.AIDemocracy.org or contact Sarah Frazer sarah@aidemocracy.org.
On August 13, 2008, Washington progressives were mesmerized by the Campus Progress, Reel Progress and HBO premiere screening of The Black List, Vol.I in Washington, DC. The overflowing theater cheered as director/producer Timothy Greenfield Sanders and interviewer/producer Elvis Mitchell introduced the project, and continued to cheer, laugh, and nod in agreement throughout the screening. The film features compelling interviews with actor Chris Rock, former Secretary of State General Colin Powell, media mogul Sean Combs, and other prominent African Americans.
In the Q&A after the film, attendees challenged Sanders and Mitchell on everything from their choice of talent, to the effectiveness of an all African-American cast. There was unanimous praise for the film's exceptional visual quality. The scheduled 30-minute Q&A did not satisfy the eager audience--they demanded the director and producer's attention for an additional 45 minutes. Mitchell and Sanders finally escaped after the building’s security insisted that the building had to be vacated.
See for yourself what all the fuss is about when HBO airs The Black List, Vol.I on August 25 at 9:00 pm (EST).
Don’t have HBO? No fear. Request a screening of this amazing documentary on your campus by emailing Campus Progress events at speakers@campusprogress.org.
...to register to vote in the September 9, 2008 Congressional and Council Primary Elections. You can register at www.dcboee.org. Remember, if you do not vote then you also lose the right to complain.
Campus Progress hosted 200 students on the evening of July 15 in the United State Capitol for the second annual Navigating the Beltway: How to Get a Job on the Hill event. Our 5 dynamic panelists spoke honestly about their personal professional experiences, the ins and outs of the D.C. job hunt and answered questions from the audience. Click here for pictures from the event.
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