Black Renaissance on Pine Street

So I'm eating breakfast at this cafe on Adeline in Berkeley. The guy at the table next to me has just finished a bowl of something ... some kind of greenish cooked cereal or some sort of Split Pea soup. A short stack with home fries follows. (Hmmm ... interesting. Either this guy is from some Eastern European country or he's just a very hungry fellow who knows how to eat.)

So I strikes up a conversation. Turns out the couple are far-left Berkeley types. Not many left these days. I tell him a bit about me, and then he pauses, and tells me about this brother down in the Lower Bottom (a.k.a. "West Oakland") who is creating this whole movement around black art, music and writing.

It takes me a week, but I find the scrap of paper deep in my pocket, and read, "Marcel Diallo's" name on it, along with the words, "blackdotcafe magazine".

Google then name in, and BaM! There's all these stories and links about a new urban revival of da creative arts in an area once labeled Oakland's Buttermilk Bottom. West Oakland. Once home to Pullman Car Porters, Southern Pacific and Sante Fe trains, Chinese Cleaners, and a strip of African American bars and night clubs linked to the infamous "Chitlin Circuit" that ran under the South's Cotton Curtain, up to Harlem, across the Midwest, and even out to Northern and Southern California.

So, here's this Marcel Diallo sitting next to actor Don Cheadle. (Ya gotta click on some of these links and read this stuff..) They're talking about how developer Rick Holliday came up with the idea of renovating the dead heart of West Oakland's 7th & Pine Street area. The surprising part of all this to me is that this has been going on for some time ... and like the West Oakland Farmer's Market, far too few people know about it.

I'm sooOOOOoo glad to read about all of Diallo's work ... even though it's a bit too urban for me. But it's important ... because like the cliché says ... "the artist, the poets, and the musicians create the consciousness of the race."

We've had 30 years of Korporate State control of the music. Started in the 70s actually ... when they took the stage out and this thing called, "Disco" suddenly appeared. All that great, REAL, music ... gone. The Great Communicator (Ronald Regan) came in and university scholarships began disappearing. A tragic thing called, "Homelessness" appeared in both America's cities and its rural areas. Drugs began pouring in from "no where" and high school drop-outs were suddenly getting all the contracts that people like Aretha Franklin, O.C. Smith, and James Brown once had. The Giants of Rhythm and Blues suddenly couldn't BUY a job ... but high school drop-outs like "Too Short" and "Snoop Dog" couldn't find pockets deep enough to hold all the money that was thrown at them.

Like Aristotle once said: "You write the laws, but let me write the songs because the youth will act out the songs."

It's been a long, dark, night upon the land folks. We need visionaries of every hue at the table ... writing, sculpting, painting a path to a New Renaissance that will stop the killing, free some souls, and fill some hearts, minds ... and stomachs.

Californian's Chances of Success: From Birth To Death

State's children less likely to succeed:
California is 34th in nation in study of criteria that help identify chances to excel.

(click on map to enlarge graphic)
"Children growing up in California, fabled land of opportunity, have a worse chance of achieving the American Dream than children in most other states, a new study says.

The real Golden State is Virginia, where children are most likely to become well-educated adults with steady, high-paying jobs, according to researchers from the nonprofit Editorial Projects in Education Research Center in Washington, D.C.

Children born in New Mexico were deemed least likely to succeed.

The researchers stacked up all the states and the District of Columbia against 13 measures of success, ranging from parents' employment and English fluency to children's test scores and graduation rates.

California ranked 34th among the states and was below the national average in seven areas: percent of children whose parents work full-time, speak English, graduated from college, earn at least a middle-level income; percent of children proficient in reading and proficient in math; and percent of adults who work full time.

California had by far the nation's lowest percentage of children whose parents speak fluent English: 62 percent. The next lowest was 73 percent, in Texas. Nearly everyone's parents speak English in Virginia: 91 percent."

[Reprinted from SF Gate. Full Story]

Heretic or "New Theology"? Bishop Charlton Pearson

Have you ever stood outside... some place where it's hot, and just wished for a breath of fresh air? Well, I just felt one while listening to NPR. It wasn't a great, cool, "Winds of Change"kind of breath ... it was just a faint one ... a small whiff that moved the grass tops just a bit ... so faintly that you could miss it if you weren't paying attention. I'm always talking about why American (and especially Black America) needs to update its theology, knowing that we'll never be a monolythic people, SEVERAL updates ... hell ... newer versions completely are in great need. But I'm getting a head of myself.
The story was about a modern American "Heretic" and "This American Life" began the story with:

"The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson (pictured), an evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His church, Higher Dimensions, was once one of the biggest in the city, drawing crowds of 5,000 people every Sunday. But several years ago, scandal engulfed the Reverend, he was denounced by almost all his former supporters, and today his congregation is just a few hundred people. He didn't have an affair. He didn't embezzle lots of money. His sin was something that to a lot of people is far worse ... he stopped believing in hell..."

The power of this story is not that the good Revern got himself in trouble by using his God given brain to actually think about his subject ... it was that ... well, it's a viewpoint long overdue.
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" goes the old saying. Well, it's obviously broke and the current nation-wide Meth / Crack / OxyContin epidemics prove it. Transpersonal Psychology says that addicion is a spiritual emergency.

In, "Reality Isn't What It Used To Be," Walter Truitt Anderson discusses the strange combination of issues we're currently walking around feeling ... or choosing not to feel. "We still have the same pre-modern Gods, yet we live in a postmodern world and it seems the theologians haven't kept up pace with the Space Age we entered 30 years ago ... let alone define The Divine in our post-modern, alienated, fantasy-fueled, drama ruled dysfunctional world of The New Millennium.

We're still battling with worn out, premodern concepts like:

• "God took my parents" *sniff* (where? ... um ... WHY??)


• God as Santa Claus (i.e. "If I'm a good boy, God will give me a new Mercedes!")


• If Jesus Chist lives only at MY church ... what's going to happen to good old Hapka at work?

So ... what exactly should religion do for us?

• Religion is supposed to help us make sense of our world.


• It's supposed to help us see The Divine increasinly in ourself and in others.


• It should give us the faith we need to be adults. (It's said you can't be a man without faith.)


• It's tasked with providing us with enough strenght to embrace "The Other" ... and the other isn't just the man or woman we hope to marry ... in todays world ... it's pretty damn near every body other than the person walking around in our shoes ... most days...

We obviously have enough guilt and shame. Guilt and shame are the key ingrediants for addiction ... as well as for Mental Illness... so shouldn't we have more guys and gals like Bishop Pearson walking around instead of fearfully nailing him OUT of the chruch ... because ... well ... because he's showing the emperor's lack of clothing ... despite all the money we've been giving so he could buy some?

Let's Focus on Solutions

If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix it, but...

Black Solutions asserts that Urban America has become a terminal disease that is killing black folks. (Sounds funny, right?) We don't need to run down all the facts and figures, 'yall know them...

1. Despite all the killings, AIDS is now the Number One cause of death for black men 25 and under. (And no, they ain't catching nor transmitting the virus by themselves.)


2. The Public Health System is now officially overloaded. They don't have enough money nor grant services to provide individuals with known cures they already have.
   
   
3. Black Theology (black churches) are soooo out dated... still preaching that same old Santa Claus version of God, that didn't keep pace with the Space Age we entered 30 years ago... let along this alienated, technocratic, "New Millennium." Transpersonal Psychology says that "Addiction" is a spiritual emergency. Hence, we need ways of interpreting our current time in ways that will allow us to release our guilt and shame (not the guilt and shame of old Moses and his crew) as well as inspiring hope and showing us The Divine in This age.

We could be here all day just listing the problems, but it's better to go right into some of the solutions.

Check out Dr. Ridgely Muhammad of Muhammad Farms. The page is dated 2003, but maybe this will get you into some research. Leave a comment or two if you find something of worth.

Then have a look at what Paul and David Roach are doing with the West Oakland Farmer's Market.

And Social Commentary from Art a.k.a. Frank Pembleton wrote:

"I've always said that Black people are a rural people, and that we weren't meant to live surrounded by concrete. This whole western urban environment is partly responsible for our jacked up mental, emotional, and physical condition. Half of what we call "Blackness" or Black culture is southern culture anyway. Black people are in denial about our southern roots, because for too long we have associated the south only with terrorism and pain. The white man has tricked us out of our birthright. We didn't just escape from the south, we were also driven from our true homes, not in the absolute sense, for the south isn't a specific place, but rather, rural living, amongst nature, with trees, grass, vegetables, and flowers, is where we should really be. Folks don't even understand. This urban environment is partly responsible for the insanity around hypermasculinity. The whole construction of Black male identity as being only about "hardness" or toughness is directly tied to this urban nightmare we're trapped in."

What we're up against: http://www.ewg.org/reports/blackfarmers/execsumm.php

Why rural or farm life is one of the best choices for what ails us currently.

Land provides self determination. I remember my parents telling us how people who lived on farms like theirs back in Mississippi, were immune to the horrors of The Depression.

When you own your own cow:

• You have plenty of fresh milk
• You have fresh cheese
• You have cream…

When you own your own chickens:

• You don't have to wonder what you'll eat for breakfast
• You can even experiment with new omelets styles

When you grow your own vegetables:

• You don't have to wonder what type of pesticides are on your tomatoes
• You don't have to beg or steal

~You are healthy.
~You have dignity
~You are happy
~You don't see the insides of a Kaiser Stress Clinic
~The only boss you have is the bank … and God

This isn't a lifestyle change for everyone. Yes you can easily find 5-10 acres of land with a 3-4 bedroom house on it for under $150,000 (and MANY times under $100,000) in rural communities throughout the south and midwest, but you have to have ways of making money BEFORE you buy. This will work best if you deally:

• You have done your research and have started making money through the internet ("new economy")
• You are NOT afraid of hard work
• Want to live out your life peacefully or raise healthy children
• You are a business owner and you find a rural place about 45 minutes outside of a larger city (esp. one with a college or university)
• You're self-employed ... i.e. as an artist or writer
• You have a valuable trade
• You're involved with medicine, teaching, Biotech or hightech.

There are plenty of internet sites that will show you plenty of opportunities.

Urban life ain't getting no better, and unless you're very skillful in a LEGAL career field, it most likely won't provide you with anymore opportunities than it has in the past.