The Definitive Voice
Eclipse the Earthstar is a Moorish American entertainer born in Houston, Texas. Solel Media will be promoting their website launching Tues April 30th! A listening Party will soon ensue. Stay tuned.
The end of the Civil War in 1865 brought three constitutional amendments which abolished slavery, made former slaves citizens of the United States, and gave all men the right to vote, regardless of race. However, measures such as literacy tests and poll taxes were used by many states to continue the disenfranchisement of African-Americans and Jim Crow laws helped those same states to enforce segregation and condone race-based violence from groups like the Ku Klux Klan.
These Negroes, they’re getting pretty uppity these days and that’s a problem for us since they’ve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppityness.
Now we’ve got to do something about this, we’ve got to give them a little something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. For if we don’t move at all, then their allies will line up against us and there’ll be no way of stopping them, we’ll lose the filibuster and there’ll be no way of putting a brake on all sorts of wild legislation. It’ll be Reconstruction all over again.”-President Lyndon B. Johnson
Many years passed with minimal action taken to enforce civil rights. In 1963, Pres. John F. Kennedy decided it was time to act, proposing the most sweeping civil rights legislation to date.
On June 2, 1964, Pres. Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, which was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. The Act prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal.
a work in progress Congress expanded the act in subsequent years, passing additional legislation in order to move toward more equality for African-Americans, including the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Who Is Zooming Who?
From President Woodrow Wilson’s 1915 endorsement of film ‘The Birth of a Nation’ to bias news reporting techniques of today, manipulation and leverage fake media have long been a strategy to undermine unity. Pres. Johnson is noted to state ”If you can convince the lowest white man that he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket.”.
In the 50+ years since the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into law, significant progress toward guaranteeing the equality of all Americans regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, or sexual orientation, has been made. Yet, it is clear, we still have a long way to go. #policy #pawnsandpolitics #oldplaybook
Marshall Walter “Major” Taylor (Nov 26, 1878 – June 21, 1932) was a cyclist who turned pro at 18, and soon emerged as “one of the dominant athletes of his era.” During the peak of his cycling career (also the decade that saw the highest number of recorded lynchings in the U.S.), Taylor stood strong, competed globally, broke world records and in 1903 he earned prize money totaling $35,000 (est. $923,352USD today)
Find a workout buddy FOR FREE on FitMatch and take your workouts to the next level.
Using geolocation technology, the FitMatch app provides a platform where fitness enthusiasts can connect with like-minded people, worldwide. Once connected, users can motivate and inspire each other, keeping each other accountable to a workout routine and helping each other reach their fitness goals.
TRUTH AND MOTIVATION
Ngo Okafor found that even his most dedicated clients would not adhere to their workout routine when they were traveling, due to lack of motivation. So, he created a platform for his clients to connect with like-minded fitness enthusiasts and find the motivation they need to maintain their fitness routines.
“I believe that the body is a slave to our minds and will do anything we tell it to do”. – Ngo Okafor
MENTAL STRENGTH
He’s earned this loyal following by espousing a fitness belief that the mind is the most important muscle a person needs to develop. However, the country of his heritage never left his heart. When he’s not in the gym, Ngo works with the non-profit he founded, Champion Spirit Foundation, which provides facilities in Nigeria where children can exercise and learn to box, free of charge, in an effort to raise their self-esteem.
As if all that weren’t enough, Ngo’s stature and physique has made him a sought after model and actor, appearing in movie and alongside the likes of Gisele Bundchen, Mary J. Blige, and in magazines such as Vogue, W, V, and WSJ. Most importantly, he also makes time to get to the local park with his wife and young son.
Marlene McNeese currently serves as the Bureau Chief for the Bureau of HIV/STD & Viral Hepatitis Prevention for the Houston Health Department. The HIV Prevention Program provides Health Education/Risk Reduction, HIV Counseling and Testing, Public Health Information, and Prevention Case Management services. The HIV Program also facilitates the Houston HIV Prevention Community Planning Group, which recommends priority populations and interventions for those residents at highest risk for new HIV infection.
Ms. McNeese has gained special expertise in the human service field since moving to Houston in 1992, assisting in the program development of four large start-up treatment programs for community based organizations and correctional facilitates addressing men and women with issues of chemical dependency, HIV/AIDS, mental health, and post incarceration syndrome.
Ms. McNeese also has extensive leadership experience with local and national Advisory Councils and Boards, and served as Chairperson of the Houston Area Ryan White Planning Council, and currently serves on the board of the Black AIDS Institute.
By Traci Cloyd
Every once in a while I have the good fortune and privilege to interview a subject who is both brilliant and captivating. In this case it’s super-star graphic artist, Cey Adams. He’s in Fort Lauderdale for the underground art, food, film and music festival “Red Eye” at ArtServe. I spoke to him at the Fort Lauderdale nightclub Stache, where he’s creating a mural. His interview, like his art, stands on its own. I didn’t write a word for this story. All I did was make a few judicious edits and transcribe the interview. Here is Cey ‘on the page’, sharing his wisdom, his wit, and his passion for helping young people.
I want to inspire kids to pursue a career in art. The thing is I started out as a teenager. My parents didn’t want me to be an artist and none of my friends. We’re a family that comes from get a real job. There is no time to think about being miserable in a real job, that’s not even a concern, not when you’re trying to put food on the table.
When I was a kid I was looking for an outlet. I’ve always been an artist, but then I started doing graffiti and that’s where I kind of found a calling. I started as a teenager. I was good at it. It was something that spoke to me and my friends and this is also the beginning of the hip hop movement. The music is starting, the art is starting, break dancing is starting, everything at the same time. It was really interesting because my friends and I were doing something we were excited about, even if adults didn’t understand it. It wasn’t for them. I took it one day at a time and one opportunity led to another. I was lucky enough to meet a photographer who was taking a picture of a wall that I painted. I asked oh, what are you doing? He says I’m shooting pictures for Run DMC’s album cover. It’s 83, so their name doesn’t completely ring a bell, but in the neighborhood I kind of knew who they were. He gave me his business card, and said go see Russell Simmons. I went down to meet Russell and he put me to work that day and everything started from there. At the time Curtis Blow was a super star, so he put me to work designing t-shirts, flyers and posters for Curt. Houdini was hot and a couple of other artists, but they were all on the R&B circuit back then because there was no Hip Hop. There was Lakeside, The Gap Band and I would be doing art work for those sort things. I would do one or two t-shirts for a concert like Budweiser Super Fest.
I was doing a lot of that, then they formed Def Jam and that’s when everything opened up. I started designing album covers. I didn’t know what graphic design was, but Russell would have an idea and say “that’s what I want”. I had to figure it out. When I met him it didn’t seem like an opportunity because he hadn’t done anything yet (He was a club promoter) but I knew that it was better than what I was doing. I was doing storefronts and making a couple of bucks here and there.
When I started at Def Jam I didn’t have anybody telling me what to do because nobody knew what I was doing. I did design. I had a lane all to myself.
Nobody wanted to do flyers. Somebody designs those things? I started out doing that. It was at a really early stage, one thing led to another. I grew as the label grew. Run DMC, and The Beastie Boys went on tour in 86 and they took me out with them. I was working the merchandising booth, selling t-shirts. If they needed a stage back drop I would paint that. The same thing I’m’ doing right here I would do it on a 40 foot role of canvas. I used to have to do that by hand for the Fresh Fest. I would have to paint those kind of backdrops. I would buy the canvas in a tube as that was as long as this room, roll it out, tack it up on the wall and go at it. I was also used to painting subway trains as a kid, so I understood scale and proportion and size.
If you’re an artist it flows naturally, you can teach people certain things, but if you don’t have a sense of instinct, then if you find yourself at a crossroads on the piece you’re not going to know what to do. I always know what to do because I just follow my gut, but also I’ve been doing it for 30 years. It’s still fun to me. It beats working. It never feels like work.
Ideas come to me at the weirdest time: asleep, taking a shower, doing something else. I’ll think, ‘oh, there it is. The second I get an opportunity to put it down I’ll run to Kinkos or Fedex and print it out. I think, oh, there it is. That’s what I wanna do and I’ll come in and execute.
I just want to take all the lessons I’ve learned over the years and put that information in front of young people that’s why I’m working with the Urban League because I know they’re on the ground doing good work. All I have to do really is use myself as a vehicle.
I’m here to tell my story, my journey and let them know you can do it. For me that’s the beauty of having somebody say hey say come to town, we’re going to host you, we’re going to show you around, we’ll create opportunities for you and then I take that opportunity to say let’s create an opportunity for these kids.
That’s what really what matters at this point. I just wanna put good info in front of young people so they know somebody believes in them, the reward is when they pay it forward to somebody else and that happens a lot. That’s one of the most amazing things to see a young person get a foot in the door, get a commission or a project. They start their design firm, tattoo shop, whatever it is and they give somebody an opportunity.
I came from an era when nobody cared. These kids are in era where they think nobody cares but people really do want to reach them. When I was a teenager nobody was teaching how to become a graphic artist. No one was saying let me show you how to paint murals, graffiti, none of that. It was go to school, get a job, the end.
When kids come (to the Broward County Convention Center) we’re going to work on a mural project together. It will be displayed in a new gallery. I imagine this all is to kick off the convention (The National Urban League Convention, July 29-August 1st in Fort Lauderdale) It coincided with me being here. It’s a great opportunity for me to remind them of who we are and where we come from. It’s great to do something with people of color. It’s not mandatory but it’s where my heart lies. I know we need the most help. The minute I got here I said set up something so I can work with an arts organization that caters to young people. The organizers know me and they knew what that meant. Use me as a resource. Just because I’m from NYC it doesn’t mean I don’t relate to these kids. These are the same kids that that come from my neighborhood. I travel all over the country and I remind them they are the same. We’re very much connected even if we come from different cities and circumstances.
I remind them, Jay Z, LL Cool Jay, (I don’t want to use DMX as an example) Run DMC, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, all of them they come from humble beginnings ,nothing, ground zero. You can just take a lump of clay and mold it into what you want it to be but you gotta start and you can’t be afraid of success. It happens one day at a time. Jay Z didn’t wake up and say, hey I’m Jay Z. There were a lot of peaks and valleys, a lot of bumps along the road. A lot of young people, I think they want success before they realize it involves a work ethic. They see the glamour and the glitz and they get really excited. Jay Z is not a star he’s a hard worker same thing with Puff. I love him to death. He came from nothing. He built everything he has. I was there with him at ground zero so I know. I watched him. We worked together, whether it was; Mary J. Blige, Notorious B.I.G. or Revolt TV whatever. Everything good that happened for him happened for me. Everything good that happened for Jay happened for me cause I was working with them, from the start, I was right there with them. I remind young people not to trip on the success and the celebrity, the paparazzi and VIP and all that but instead to focus on the work ethic. This guy gets up every day and grinds. Grinds, like for real. You got business people you gotta watch out for, the record company people who just wanna take, take take once you’re hot but when you’re trying to get there you need people who believe in what you’re doing.
Kanye said it best at the height of his success. He says forgive me for believing in myself. I knew that I was this guy, but nobody else knew.
My success is 30 years in the making. It did not happen overnight and every day isn’t sunshine.
There are peaks and valleys, good days and bad days. Some days all these amazing opportunities are coming out of the woodworks. There are days the phone is not ringing. That can be weeks and months. There are peaks and valleys, moments. Hopefully we learn a lesson from some rappers and we don’t waste our opportunities because there is always a flavor of the month coming right after you. One minute you’re hot, the next minute you’re not. It’s a fact. This is show business. Nobody stays hot forever, nobody.
I’m excited to be in Fort Lauderdale, to see your town. You guys are always lumped in with Miami when people mention it in conversation because they’re in close proximity. Fort Lauderdale is a beautiful place, very different. It’s beautiful. It’s nice to be on the ground and see it. I’ve been to Miami a gazillion times, but I can’t remember the last time I was in Fort Lauderdale, if ever. I’m excited to be here.
Traci "The News Goddess" is known for "keeping it real" on and off the air. She is an outgoing, brainy, extrovert with a wicked sense of humor. – See more at: http://www.hot105fm.com/weblogs/hot-news-traci-cloyd/2015/jul/29/cey-adams-interview/#sthash.CxNQrCUI.dpuf
What is the difference between policing and protecting? Is it fair to badger young males of color with the concept that if they stood, talked, walked or spoke a certain way, there would be less policing? Is it true? The Fugitive Slave Law was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850. The law, which penalized officials who did not arrest Negros and rewarded those who seized a black person fitting the description of any alleged runaway, laid the foundation for modern patroling and community policing. In addition, the federal goverment rewarded and paid ‘patrollers’ and court judges for every black person found guilty.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1904, Bunche was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in Oslo, Norway for his successful mediation of a series of armistice agreements between the new nation of Israel and four Arab neighbors, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria i n 1950.
It was the first, and to date, it remains the only time that all the parties to the Middle East conflict signed armistice agreements with Israel. In being awarded the Peace Prize, Bunche became the first person of color in the world to be so honored. (Other notable contenders for the prize that year included Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman, Albert Schweitzer and George C. Marshall.)
Bunche entered the field of U.S. diplomacy while serving in the Office of Strategic Services and the State Department during the 1940s. In 1947, he was appointed to the United Nations and served as an aide on the U.N. Palestine Commission, a special committee formed to seek an end to the crisis over Israel’s movement toward independence. When the chief U.N. mediator between Israel and its Arab opponents died in early 1949, Bunche was thrust into a leading role in the process and proved instrumental in the successful negotiation of a cease-fire between the warring parties. Bunche continued his important role at the U.N. and was noted for his expertise on colonial affairs and race relations. He died in 1971.
Ebola, Elections and a little slight of hand. It seems that once the mid-term electons are over, the Ebola scare is too. Within days after the election, Texas Department of State Health Services Commissioner Dr. David Lakey and Gov. Rick Perry insist that health care workers returning from Ebola-stricken areas can simply self-quarantine. The guidelines are recommended by the blue-ribbon task force, which Perry created after the nation’s first case of Ebola was diagnosed in Dallas, Texas and set forth nuanced “exposure” categories.
Fiercely committed to justice Appointed to replace Eric Holder, one of the longest-serving Attorney Generals in US history, Lynch has sucessfully prosecuted the terrorists plot to bomb the Federal Reserve Bank and the New York City subway. She has boldly gone after public corruption, bringing charges against public officials in both parties. She’s helped secure billions in settlements from some of the world’s biggest banks accused of fraud, and jailed some of New York’s most violent and notorious mobsters and gang members. She also ensured the civil rights prosecution of the officers involved in the brutal assault of the Haitian immigrant, Abner Louima.
Obama unites with Africa to develop an effective plan.
Focusing on the next generation is at the core of a nation’s responsibility and work. President Obama welcomed African leaders to DC for a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, the first such event of its kind and the largest event any U.S. President has held with African heads of state and government. Built on the President’s trip to Africa in the summer of 2013 and aimed to strengthen ties between the US and one of the world’s most dynamic and fastest growing regions.
Investing in Our Future
The Summit focused on trade and investment in Africa and highlighted concrete ideas that deepen the partnership, stimulate growth, unlock opportunities, and create an enabling environment for the next generation.
Read the full story at https://www.whitehouse.gov/us–africa–leaders–summit
It’s one of those Mondays, a good Monday where everybody is up in the house including two of the stars of THE hottest show on tv right now, Empire. Tom and Jay Anthony Brown are in the building broadcasting. They spent the weekend in Miami after their live broadcast, Friday in the Improv at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Jay leaves his studio to go check out Hakeem and Jamal on the Rickey Smiley show and he can’t believe Hakeem and Jamal know his work.
Brian, producer of the D.J.Laz morning show gives me the biggest laugh of the day. I escorted Casey and Timolyn Cole to the studio for their interview. Brian is looking right past them, asking, okay, “where is Timbaland? Timolyn looks at Casey and says, oh, I can see where that would happen. Casey’s still in the dark – what’s happening… who is Timbaland?
As we walk away Casey’s still asking what, who is Timbaland?
Timolyn will explain it. I’ve gotta get back upstairs, do my 8:55 broadcast and get back to the 99 Jamz Studio for the photo op with Hakeem and Jamal.
The photo op with Hakeem and Jamal goes better than expected. I actually have a chance to talk with Jussie. I ask him if he’s ready for the sudden vortex of fame. “Yes, I’ve been around this for a long time. I’m 31 years old. My feet are on the ground. When I was 16 to 19 I was my sister’s publicist. This is not my first time at the rodeo. This is just my first time being in the center of it. When I asked if he’s prepared though, for the glare of the spotlight, the relentless and repetitive nature of reporters’ and the insatiable thirst for information about his private life, (which we both agree has nothing at all to do with the craft of acting) he is so open and honest other people in the hallway stop in their tracks to hear us talking. “Why does anyone care where I put my penis”? Jamal is never asked if he likes dating older women, Dre is never asked if he’s bi-polar. I thought going on Ellen would help – so I could say it once and get it out there.
Alas, a rep tells us, I’m sorry but we have to go. I hate to break this up, I can tell you two are…. Jussie gives me his publicist name, tells me he’ll be glad to follow up.
October 17, 2014: SMART Talk Lecture I: Garland Burton, KBR Director Community Affairs and Diversity & Kenneth Hall, KBR Director Sales and Strategy Administration / KBR Infrastructure America
9:00 am -11:00 am, Houston Museum of African American Culture, 4807 Caroline, Houston, Texas 77004
Kenneth Hall is a Senior Manager who directs the proposals, marketing, and sales administration efforts for Infrastructure Americas, a group within the Infrastructure Government & Power business unit of Kellogg Brown & Root Services, Inc. (KBR). In this role, Mr. Hall provides sales, marketing, and proposals leadership to the Houston headquarters office and multiple branch offices for the group’s work, primarily in the transportation, water, and facilities market sectors. These offices include Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio, Texas, as well as Mobile and Birmingham, Alabama.
He joined KBR in 2006 as a Proposal Manager, and was promoted to lead responsibility in January 2011.
His duties include leading proposal teams from opening game, pre-Request-for-Proposal activities through proposal post-mortems. He ensures proposals are compliant and responsive and that they present winning strategies. He manages changing deadlines, external inquiries, and related pressures, and he is responsible for a quality product, from inception to close including proofreading, fact-checking, aesthetic appeal, and content. He is also responsible for quarterly internal and external newsletters, trade shows, and advertising for his group.
Through a joint initiative entitled the Tré STREAM—Smart Talks Lecture Series, Tré Magazine and the Center for the Study of African American Culture at the University of Houston will host four public lectures designed to increase and enhance the retention, academic performance, leadership ability, college readiness, and cultural competency of area high school students interested in research based careers in science, technology, engineering, the arts, medicine and mathematics. Moreover, the educational content involved in Tré STREAM will increase the overall capacity of the city and surrounding communities to successfully present subsequent high quality educational programming.
The series identifies outstanding professionals who are making exceptional achievements and contributions to local, state, regional, national and international affairs. In addition to these stated goals, the relationships and networks formed through the lecture series exposes high school students to the possible challenges, career paths and entrepreneurship opportunities that await them upon graduation.
Through this project, Tré Magazine and the Center for the Study of African American Culture will provide high school students in the community’s of Third Ward and Sunnyside with the following services:
Literacy continues to be a huge issue in public education. Much like the mounting challenge of public education, in general, literacy is a key civil rights issue of the 21st century. #hope
So much of every student’s academic success depends on his/her ability to read well. If they are to become vital, contributing members of this increasingly complex society, students must be able to critically interpret a variety of texts — printed, video, and cyber — about topics, ranging from social and religious to economic and judicial.
Unfortunately, no matter how intelligent the child, critical reading skills do not suddenly manifest when state-mandated testing season rolls around. These essential skills build over time, beginning early in children’s development.
The State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, or STAAR, is three years old this year, and despite schools’ pushing for better results, the facts are clear — literacy levels need to be improved.
by the numbers
Texas 2013-14 STAAR data
6th-grade Reading 77%
7th-grade Reading 75%
8th-grade Reading 82%
Some critics ascribe the low performance on students’ household income. For example, Meredith Phillips, an associate professor of public policy and sociology at UCLA, conducted a survey which showed that before the age of six, affluent children spend 1,300 more hours reading than low-income children. Additionally, Phillips suggests that by the time high-income children start school, they have spent about 400 hours more than poor children in literacy activities. Literacy disparity has less to do with income than it does with how wealthier families spend their discretionary funds — they purchase more books; they travel to places beyond their homes, the daycare, or the mall; and, perhaps most importantly, they actually converse with their children about what they are seeing, feeling, and reading.
To be sure, increasing the time students spend engaging in test-taking strategies may help them perform better on tests; however, if children are going to truly be literate, educators and parents have be more conscientious and more creative about instilling literacy skills early.
A group of youth that is consciously and creatively improving students’ reading success is the state-winning Readers’ Theatre program which
has grown considerably over the past three years, and students are not only passing the STAAR, but they are also learning public speaking, self-esteem, Africana history, and critical thinking.
The group’s founder and visionary director, Dr. Michon Benson, credits students’ collective success to their researching current events, to allowing them to openly express their own angst about youth culture, and to working with them on vocabulary skills. “Readers’ Theatre provides an opportunity for students to closely read issues and to question the world in interesting ways,” Benson says. The group’s poems address topics, ranging from the history of twerking and the Venus Hottentot to growing up in a single-parent home and wanting to express their individuality in an increasingly homogeneous youth culture. “Once students perform and they realize that other people seriously consider what they
have to say,” Benson adds,”they can’t wait to return to school to begin writing and editing the next set of poems.”
In the 2013-14 season, students performed in venues, such as the Houston Museum for African American Culture and TSU Homecoming, Emancipation Park, and in a number of elementary schools in the greater-Houston area. The climax of their year was their winning the Texas Charter School Drama competition in Austin, Texas. Before the end of the school year, even more students have expressed an interest in becoming a part of
the team. “Anyone who is interested in joining, is welcome. Our goal is not winning state; rather, it is ensuring students’ appreciation for reading and
their lifelong literacy.”
Join Jason Derulo as he brings awareness to HIV
Ticket will grant admission to the Astros v. Marlins Game and the Jason Derulo concert immediately following the game
Date: July 26, 2014
Time: game starts at 6:00 concert following the game
When someone gets HIV, the body”s immune system makes antibodies to try to fight the infection. Most HIV tests available today test for HIV antibodies. If HIV antibodies are present, it means that a person is infected with HIV. A rapid HIV test using blood will be performed. The rapid HIV test being done at the Houston Hits Home testing events will require a blood sample to be drawn. Your test results will be available the same day you test.
The test is looking for presence of Treponema pallidum, the bacterium that causes syphilis. Syphilis is an infectious disease that is most often spread by sexual contact, such as through direct contact with a syphilis sore (chancre). It is easily treated but can cause severe health problems if left untreated. The syphilis test being done at the Houston Hits Home testing events will require a blood sample to be drawn. Your test results will be available the same day you test.
Hepatitis C tests are used to detect and diagnose an infection and/or to monitor the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV). Tests are used to detect the condition if a person:
Has been exposed to someone with HCV
Participates in high risk behaviors such as injecting street drugs
Born between 1945 – 1965
Most people newly infected with HCV have no symptoms or ones that are so mild that they rarely prompt a person to visit a doctor and get tested for HCV. However, about 10-20% of people may experience symptoms such as fatigue, pain in the abdominal area, decreased appetite, and jaundice and may be tested for HCV. Your test results will be available the same day you test.
Set on Chicago's South Side, A Raisin in the Sun revolved around the divergent dreams and conflicts within three generations of the Younger family: son Walter Lee (Denzel Washington), his wife Ruth (Sophie Okonedo), his sister Beneatha (Anika Noni Rose), his son Travis (Bryce Clyde Jenkins) and matriarch Lena, called Mama (LaTanya Richardson Jackson). When her deceased husband’s money comes through, Mama dreams of moving to a new home and a better neighborhood in Chicago. Walter Lee, a chauffeur, has other plans: buying a liquor store and being his own man. Beneatha dreams of medical school. The tensions and prejudice they face form this seminal American drama.
Originally produced in 1959, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun was the first play written by an African American woman to be produced on Broadway, where it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play. The Washington Post has called it “one of a handful of great American dramas. A Raisin in the Sun belongs in the inner circle, along with Death of a Salesman and Long Day’s Journey into Night.” The New York Times has hailed it as “the play that changed American theatre forever.”
Sameera Moussa was an Egyptian nuclear scientist who held a doctorate in atomic radiation and worked to make the medical use of nuclear technology affordable to all. She organized the “Atomic Energy for Peace” Conferences and sponsored a call to many prominent scientist, for setting an international conference under the banner “Atoms for Peace”. The conference made a number of recommendations for setting up a committee to protect against nuclear hazards for which she strongly advocated. Sameera also volunteered to help treat cancer patients at various hospitals especially since her mother went through a fierce battle against this disease.
Sameera Moussa believed in “Atoms for Peace” and said “I’ll make nuclear treatment as available and as cheap as Aspirin.” She worked hard for this purpose, and throughout her intensive research, she came up with a historic equation that would help break the atoms of cheap metals such as copper, paving the way for cheap nuclear energy.
She turned down several offers that required her to live in the United States and to be granted the American citizenship saying “Egypt, my dear homeland, is waiting for me.” On August 5, 1952 after her first visit to America she intended to return home, but she was invited to a trip. Sadly, on the way, the car rushed down from a height of 40 feet, which killed her immediately; yet her legacy and contribution to world will live forever.
Under President Obama, electricity generation from wind has more than doubled between 2008 and 2011.
The Obama Administration approved the nation’s first-ever offshore wind project and is supporting development of the world’s largest wind farm in Oregon. PHOTO: REUTERS
In the Masai community where 13-year-old Richard Turere lives, cattle are all-important. But lion attacks were growing more frequent. In this short, inspiring talk, the young inventor shares the solar-powered solution he designed to safely scare the lions away.
‘Lion Lights’ are flashing lights set up around a perimeter facing outwards; which are used to scare away lions.
The lion lights were devised by Maasai Richard Turere to prevent night attacks by lions on his family’s cattle herd, which was located in Kitengela on the unfenced south side of Nairobi National Park, in Kenya. These types of attacks often lead to the hunting and killing of the lions, which are endangered.
When Richard Turere was 9 (2009) he tried kerosene lamps and scarecrows but these proved not to work, but he noticed that the lions did not attack when people were present, and he theorised that they were deterred by moving torchlight. Therefore Richard placed LED lights around the perimeter of his families’ cow shed, connected them to vehicle indicator flashers, and powered the system from car batteries charged by a solar panel.
The lion attacks ceased and soon neighbours were asking for him to set up similar systems around their farms. The cattle were also calmer because the lights meant that they could see the land around was safe.
Based on this invention, Richard Turere won a scholarship to Brookhouse School.
Although originally intended for lions, Lion Lights may also work for other predators such as leopards and cheetahs.
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