Monthly Archives: June 2016

MS. MALEATRA MONTANEZ: WOMAN SUES AFTER UPSTATE N.Y. COP AVOIDS RAPE CHARGES

Black/Latina women are still the Everlast punching bag for all the filth and perversions that have occurred to them at the hands of 400 years of racist white supremacy.

Ms. Maleatra Montanez is no different.

She was raped last year by a White cop (aka, race soldier), Chester Thompson who came to her home after Ms. Montanez filed a missing persons report on her daughter who went missing on February 14, 2015, Valentine’s Day.

Instead of being there to offer assistance to Ms. Montanez, this……….. human raped her while her newborn son was in the same room.

After brutalizing Ms. Montanez, this thing had the gall to ask her if she was going to report him.

He was charged not with rape, but only received a sentence of 3 years probation. Apparently, through the New York State law protects police officers from being charged with rape unless the alleged victim expressly says no and refuses.

Wow, unbelievable. Many women in such situations do not say no. Some are so traumatized that they cannot even scream for fear of being mangled, mutilated, or murdered.

And where the hell was N.O.W. and all the other White feminist organizations? Why do they always let crimes such as these against Black/Latina women get swept under the rug? Especially since many White women feminists obviously do not know what true feminism is? Especially if it does not serve the interests of White feminists?

Of course, Ms. Montanez, being considered Black, is unrapeable, like all Black women in the good ‘ol US0fA.

Distraught and devastated by this verdict, Ms. Montanez has filed a $7 million dollar lawsuit against the city’s police department.

She deserves better than the shitty stick she was handed by those who were supposed to protect and serve.

Hopefully she will win her lawsuit.

A message needs to be sent to those who commit crimes while under color of authority should pay the full price the same as the common criminal has to pay.

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EXCLUSIVE: Woman sues after upstate N.Y. cop avoids rape charges, says she was forced into having sex

Woman sues after upstate N.Y. cop avoids rape charges
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, May 16, 2016, 4:00 AM
Maleatra Montanez says she called police to report her missing daughter, only to get raped by a cop.

Maleatra Montanez says she called police to report her missing daughter, only to get raped by a cop.

(Shira Stoll for NY Daily News)

She’d called the police to report her teenage daughter missing and hours later Maleatra Montanez was being compelled by the responding officer to have sex with him in her living room.”Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We don’t have to do this,” Montanez, 40, said she pleaded with Syracuse police officer Chester Thompson, 47, during the alleged encounter on Valentine’s Day 2015.The officer, according to a sworn deposition Montanez gave in February, ignored her pleas. She gave the Daily News permission to use her name and she is identified in the court papers.

The veteran cop initially forced the mother of four to perform oral sex, and then ordered her to get a condom from an adjacent bedroom.

911 call leads to NYPD detective being charged with rape

When she returned, Thompson demanded she turn around-looking right at her newborn son — while he raped her from behind, according to a sworn court deposition Montanez gave in February, obtained exclusively by The News.

A day after the incident occurred she went to the hospital and reported it to Syracuse police.

Thompson was arrested and criminally charged in March.

In December 2015, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of official misconduct for having sex with Montanez — and another woman in three unrelated incidents — while on duty. He was booted off the police force and sentenced to three years of probation under the agreement.

Felon rapes woman at Los Angeles park hours after release

He skated away with what amounts to a slap on the wrist without jail time, according to Montanez, who protested outside the courtroom when the sentence was formally announced.

Syracuse assistant district attorney Jeremy Cali has said he believes Montanez was intimidated and scared during the meeting.

But an apparent quirk in New York State law protects police officers from being charged with rape unless the alleged victim expressly says no and refuses.

Still, Montanez and her supporters believe the DA should have done more.

“I believe a rape took place in this case,” said her civil lawyer, Ed Sivin. The law defines “forcible compulsion” as “a threat, express or implied,” he noted.

Thompson, who did not return calls seeking comment, reportedly admitted to having sex with Montanez and the other woman while on duty.

But he claimed it was consensual.

Montanez pointed out that she had never met him before the encounter and was ordered by her doctor to abstain from sex because she had recently given birth.

Her nightmare began after she called 911 to report her teenage daughter missing following a family dispute.

Syracuse cop Chester Thompson was canned and sentenced to three years of probation.

Syracuse cop Chester Thompson was canned and sentenced to three years of probation.

(Syracuse Police Department)

Outside her front door, she saw Thompson, a white officer in uniform, fidgeting wildly, Montanez, who is black, testified.

“When I opened the door, he told me that I was pretty,” Montanez recalled.

Still, she tried to calm him by pointing out no one else, aside from the newborn, was home to be worried about.

“I thought he was afraid…[there] might be a black man or somebody,” she said.

That didn’t help.

“He couldn’t stand still,” she said. “He just kept moving, biting on the bottom of his lip.”

The sexual advances began immediately, she alleges.

Thompson told her she was “pretty,” her butt was big, and that her “lips looked like it can hold…a penis,” according her deposition.

He then allegedly began to rub his private parts with his hands while he looked at a photo of a younger Montanez near the couch.

After a brief phone call with her sister, Montanez says Thompson removed his penis and ordered her to perform oral sex.

“All I know is I said, ‘Whoa!'” she recalled. “I noticed on his penis…he had a mark on his testicle and he had a mark on his penis…like a mole or a sore or something.”

They were interrupted when a neighbor came over to help clean the apartment, Montanez said.

But Thompson answered the door and told the man to come back later because she was busy filing a police report.

When the man left he ordered her to “frisk me” — and during the pat down moved her hand over his pants covered penis.

“And he asked me do I love my son,” Montanez testified. “So I had an idea of maybe what was getting ready to happen.”

She thought about trying to choke him to death.

Maleatra Montanez watches her 1-year-old son, Erwin, at her home on Saturday.

Maleatra Montanez watches her 1-year-old son, Erwin, at her home on Saturday.

(Shira Stoll for NY Daily News)

But decided against it due to fears she’d be unable to “choke him tight enough.”

“I had millions of thoughts in my mind, but I didn’t do it,” she said.

Thompson then demanded she get a condom from her bedroom.

“We don’t have to do this,” she repeatedly pleaded through tears.

“He put the condom on and told me to face my son-to look at my son,” she said.

Before leaving, Thompson noted he had a wife and children and asked several times if she was going to report him.

During the encounter Montanez said she kept on looking at Thompson’s gun.

Still, she has blamed herself for not fighting back.

“I can’t accept it,” she said. “I can’t accept it because I just feel like…I should’ve done more. And I can’t accept that I just didn’t do more.”

“Why didn’t I stab him?” she asked. “Why I didn’t scream out my front door. Why I didn’t do nothing.”

She’s not the only civilian to accuse an officer of rape or other sexual misconduct.

A yearlong investigation by the Associated Press found over 1,000 police officers nationwide were kicked off the force over the past six years for offenses including rape, sexual assault and possession of child pornography. The actual number of cases is believed to be higher but it is difficult to track because comprehensive data does not exist.

On Thursday, Montanez filed a $7 million suit against Thompson and several higher ups in the Syracuse Police Department. The suit alleges Thompson had a known history of abuses that should have been reviewed earlier. The case was first reported by Syracuse.com.

“We’ve had information from several sources that this is not the first time that Chester Thompson has engaged in this type of malfeasance,” her lawyer, Sivin, said. “And it appears that this may have been going on for a period of years. And that people high up in the Syracuse Police Department knew about it and didn’t take prompt remedial measures against him.”

Thompson’s criminal lawyer, the Syracuse District Attorney, and the Syracuse Police Department did not return calls seeking comment.

rblau@nydailynews.com 

SOURCE

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JESSE WILLIAMS’ SPEECH AT THE BET AWARDS SHOW JUNE 27, 2016

Anytime, anyone…………………..anyone……………speaks up for truth, justice and the end of mistreatment of any human being, especially Black Americans, that person is a true fighter against the viciousness of racist white supremacy.

Thank you Jessie Williams for speaking up for Black women.

It isn’t often that someone gives a damn about our right to live on this planet.

Here in its entirety is the speech that Greys Anatomy actor Jessie Williams gave at the BET Awards on Monday, June 27, 2016 after winning the Humanitarian Award.

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“This is for the real organizers all over the country, the activist, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do. It’s kinda basic mathematics: the more we learn about who we are and how we got here the more we will mobilize.

“This award is also for the black women in particular who have spent their lives nurturing everyone before themselves – we can and will do better for you.

“Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to de-escalate, disarm and not kill white people every day. So what’s going to happen is we’re going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours. [Standing ovation.]

“I got more, y’all. Yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear any more about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on a 12-year-old playing alone in a park in broad daylight, killing him on television, and then going home to make a sandwich.

“Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better to live in 2012 than 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner, Sandra Bland.

“The thing is though, all of us here are getting money, that alone isn’t going to stop this. Dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back to put someone’s brand on our body – when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies?

“There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There is no job we haven’t done, there is no tax they haven’t levied against us, and we have paid all of them.

“But freedom is always conditional here. ‘You’re free!’ they keeping telling us. ‘But she would be alive if she hadn’t acted so … free.’ Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but the hereafter is a hustle: We want it now.

“Let’s get a couple of things straight. The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander – that’s not our job so let’s stop with all that. If you have a critique for our resistance then you’d better have an established record, a critique of our oppression.

“If you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do: sit down.

“We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold! – ghettoizing and demeaning our creations and stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.

“Just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.

“Thank you.”

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COLORLINES: THE DEVASTATING DAPA LOSS AND THE BIG REPRODUCTIVE WIN

 

Watch the BET Awards Speech That Sparked #JesseWilliamsAppreciationDay

“Just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.”

More Shattered Families

The Supreme Court’s non-decision on immigration means that, for now, states can refuse to expand DACA and start DAPA. How do we get over this stunning setback?

W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu Launch Election-Focused Podcast

“Politically Re-Active with W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu” debuts today.

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Violence Breaks Out Between Neo-Nazis and Opponents in California

ACLU, Researchers and Journalists Sue to Legally Investigate Algorithm-Based Discrimination

No Indictment for Texas Cop Who Slammed Teen in Bikini

 

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HATEWATCH: HEADLINES FOR 6-30-2016

Hatewatch Staff

June 30, 2016
 

Trump’s white nationalists fueled by movement; North Carolina bathroom law gets worse; #HeterosexualPrideDay is just embarrassing; and more.

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Vice: The movement that is fueling Donald Trump’s white nationalist supporters.

Reuters: Poll finds that Trump supporters are much more likely to view black people negatively.

Crooks and Liars: Boston radio host introduces Trump with war whoops for Elizabeth Warren.

Talking Points Memo: Alarmed Muslim Americans mobilize to stop Trump.

Think Progress: These well-established bigots have formed the ‘National Diversity Coalition for Trump.’

Access ADL: Extremist candidates exploit election season to spread hate.

Wonkette: Republicans attach poison-pill amendments to Zika funding bill, including help for the Confederate flag.

The Daily Beast: North Carolina’s anti-LGBT bathroom law just got worse.

Times Standard (Eureka, CA): Sovereign citizen ‘Forest Queen’ claims she’s taking on the government ‘wrongdoers.’

Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA): Ammon Bundy’s bodyguard, Brian ‘Buddha’ Cavalier, pleads guilty to firearms charge in standoff case.

Salon: Internet’s embarrassing #HeterosexualPrideDay hashtag is an appalling twist on LGBT solidarity.

Right Wing Watch: Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia tells Alex Jones that Islamists have formed an unholy alliance with liberals.

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INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE: JUNE 26, 2016

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is annually observed on June 26 to remind people that human torture is not only unacceptable – it is also a crime.

UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture
The UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture serves as a reminder to people that human torture is a crime.
©iStockphoto.com/ Ryan Klos

What Do People Do?

Rehabilitation centers and human rights organizations around the world celebrate the UN’s International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on June 26 each year. The day serves as a reminder to people that torture is a crime. This event gives everyone a chance to unite and voice their opinions against human torture.

Organizations, including the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims and Amnesty International, have played an active role in organizing events around the world to promote the day. Activities may include: photo exhibitions; the distribution of posters and other material to boost people’s awareness of issues related to human torture; and television advertisements.

Public Life

The International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is not a public holiday and public life is not affected.

Background

On June 26, 1987, the Convention against Torture came into force. It was an important step in the process of globalizing human rights and acknowledging that torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment should be universally illegal. In 1997 the United Nations General Assembly decided to mark this historic date and designated June 26 each year as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The first International Day in Support of Victims of Torture was held on June 26, 1998. It was a day when the United Nations appealed to all governments and members of civil society to take action to defeat torture and torturers everywhere. That same year marked the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Symbols

The United Nations’ logo is often associated with marketing and promotional material for this event. It features a projection of a world map (less Antarctica) centered on the North Pole, enclosed by olive branches. The olive branches are a symbol for peace, and the world map represents all the people of the world. The logo appears in colors such as black on a white or light yellow background.

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture Observances

 

Weekday Date Year Name Holiday Type
Sat Jun 26 2010 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Sun Jun 26 2011 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Tue Jun 26 2012 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Wed Jun 26 2013 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Thu Jun 26 2014 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Fri Jun 26 2015 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Sun Jun 26 2016 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Mon Jun 26 2017 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Tue Jun 26 2018 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Wed Jun 26 2019 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance
Fri Jun 26 2020 International Day in Support of Victims of Torture United Nations observance

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INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST DRUG ABUSE AND ILLICIT TRAFFICKING: JUNE 26, 2016

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking

The United Nations’ (UN) International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking falls on June 26 each year to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society. This day is supported by individuals, communities and various organizations all over the world.

UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
This photo is used for illustrative purposes only. It does not imply the attitudes, behaviour or actions of the model in this photo.
©iStockphoto.com/webking

What Do People Do?

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has, over the years, been actively involved in launching campaigns to mobilize support for drug control. The UNODC often teams up with other organizations and encourages people in society to actively take part in these campaigns.

Governments, organizations and individuals in many countries, including Vietnam, Borneo and Thailand, have actively participated in promotional events and larger scale activities, such as public rallies and mass media involvement, to promote the awareness of dangers associated with illicit drugs.

Public Life

The International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is a global observance and not a public holiday.

Background

According to the UNODC, nearly 200 million people are using illicit drugs such as cocaine, cannabis, hallucinogens, opiates and sedative hypnotics worldwide. In December 1987 the UN General Assembly decided to observe June 26 as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The UN was determined to help create an international society free of drug abuse. This resolution recommended further action with regard to the report and conclusions of the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Following the resolution, the years 1991 to 2000 were heralded as the “United Nations Decade Against Drug Abuse”. In 1998 the UN General Assembly adopted a political declaration to address the global drug problem. The declaration expresses UN members’ commitment to fighting the problem.

Symbols

The United Nations’ logo is often associated with marketing and promotional material for this event. It features a projection of a world map (less Antarctica) centered on the North Pole, enclosed by olive branches. The olive branches are a symbol for peace, and the world map represents all the people of the world. It has been featured in colors such as white against a blue background or gold against a light purple background.

2016 Theme: “Listen First”

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking Observances

 

Weekday Date Year Name Holiday Type
Sat Jun 26 2010 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Sun Jun 26 2011 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Tue Jun 26 2012 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Wed Jun 26 2013 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Thu Jun 26 2014 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Fri Jun 26 2015 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Sun Jun 26 2016 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Mon Jun 26 2017 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Tue Jun 26 2018 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Wed Jun 26 2019 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance
Fri Jun 26 2020 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking United Nations observance

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DAY OF THE SEAFARER [IMO]: JUNE 25, 2016

Day of the Seafarer

June 25 is observed worldwide as the Day of the Seafarer.

The first Day of the Seafarer was observed on June 25, 2011.
©iStockphoto.com/Oleksandr Kalinichenko

In 2010, the International Maritime Organization (IMO), decided to designate June 25th as the International Day of the Seafarer as a way to recognize that almost everything that we use in our daily lives has been directly or indirectly affected by sea transport.

The purpose of the day is to give thanks to seafarers for their contribution to the world economy and the civil society; and for the risks and personal costs they bear while on their jobs.

Background

According to IMO’s estimates, ships transport almost 90 percent of the world’s goods trade. Seafarers are not only responsible for the operations of such ships, but are also responsible for the safe and smooth delivery of the cargo.

The day not only acknowledges the invaluable work of seafarers, but also aims to bring global attention to the issues affecting their work and lives, such as piracy. It calls on governments to develop policies that lead to fair treatment of seafarers at ports, and asks private ship companies and owners to provide their employees proper facilities and comforts while they are at sea.

Observances

Since 2011, the IMO has taken the celebration of the Day of the Seafarer online, calling for the public to use social media such as Facebook and Twitter, to voice their support for seafarers and to thank them for their work.

The United Nations has now included the Day of the Seafarer in its list of observances.

Day of the Seafarer Observances

Weekday Date Year Name Holiday Type
Sat Jun 25 2011 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Mon Jun 25 2012 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Tue Jun 25 2013 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Wed Jun 25 2014 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Thu Jun 25 2015 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Sat Jun 25 2016 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Sun Jun 25 2017 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Mon Jun 25 2018 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Tue Jun 25 2019 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance
Thu Jun 25 2020 Day of the Seafarer United Nations observance

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IN REMEMBRANCE: 6-26-2016

BERNIE WORRELL, THE MOST INFLUENTIAL KEYBOARDIST YOU’VE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF

 

By Camila Domonoske
June 25, 2016

 

Bernie Worrell performing with Leo Nocentelli’s Rare Funk Gathering at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival in 2008. Credit Clayton Call/Redferns  SOURCE

Keyboardist and composer Bernie Worrell, who helped shape the sound of the band Parliament-Funkadelic and influenced countless artists across a wide range of genres, died Friday at 72.

Worrell announced earlier this year that he had been diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer.

His musical life began early — according to his official biography, he started studying piano at age 3, wrote his first concerto at age 8 and performed with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., at 10.

The classically trained keyboardist (he studied at Juilliard and the New England Conservatory of Music) made his name — and an indelible mark on music — in the world of P-Funk.

Worrell, aka “The Wizard of Woo,” was an early member of Parliament-Funkadelic, George Clinton’s sprawling, theatrical and wildly influential funk collective.

YouTube

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame notes that Parliament and Funkadelic “prefigured everything from rap and hip-hop to techno and alternative,” with latter-day disciples including Prince and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Worrell was one of the key collaborators shaping the sounds of the collective.

He was particularly famous for his innovative embrace of the sounds of synthesizers.

In the 1980s, Worrell helped reshape the sound of the Talking Heads and became a regular member of their expanded lineup.

Even if you don’t know Worrell, you’ve probably heard his work. As a studio musician he contributed to scores of albums, and P-Funk songs are frequently sampled on hip-hop tracks.

In 1991, when his second solo album came out, Worrell spoke to reporter Andy Lyman for Morning Edition. Worrell said his mastery of musical fundamentals was central to his genre-mashing work.

Bernie Worrell performs at the Black Rock Coalition Presents: All The Woo In The World — An All-Star Celebration benefit concert on April 4 in New York City. The concert was raising money for Worrell's medical costs.i

Bernie Worrell performs at the Black Rock Coalition Presents: All The Woo In The World — An All-Star Celebration benefit concert on April 4 in New York City. The concert was raising money for Worrell’s medical costs. Al Pereira/WireImage 

“The art of creating is not just pushing a button,” he said. “We’re going to lose
the art of creating — composing — because they won’t even know how to make a chord. The chords are already just on a button. What is the root? What’s the third? What’s the fifth of the chord?

“I feel that a lot of artists and parents who are interested in music should get music back into the mainstream in school systems,” he said. “That’s being lost also.”

You can hear that whole piece, which also explores the social awareness of Parliament/Funkadelic as well as Worrell’s lasting influence on the Talking Heads, here:

From 1991: Funk Legend Bernie Worrell, By Andy Lyman

ListenQueue

 

  • Embed
     http://www.npr.org/player/embed/482486305/482504633″ />

In January, Worrell announced that he had been diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. An online fundraiser and star-studded benefit concert helped cover his medical expenses — and gave many in the music community a chance to honor his life while he was still there to hear it.

George Clinton and Bootsy Collins of P-Funk, David Byrne and Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads, Fred Schneider of the B-52s, Buckethead, Living Colour and Questlove, among others, performed at the “All The WOO In The World” benefit concert in April. And Worrell played too, of course.

The crowd shouted “We love you, Bernie!” as he struggled for words, holding a proclamation from the mayor of Newark, N.J., in his honor. “I don’t know what to —” Worrell said.

“Thank you,” he finally said. “I love you, too.”

SOURCE

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RALPH STANLEY, BLUEGRASS PIONEER

Ralph Stanley at the Stagecoach Country Music Festivalin 2012. Karl Walter/Getty Images

One of the early leaders of bluegrass music, Ralph Stanley, has died at age 89. His death was announced by his grandson Nathan Stanley; Stanley’s publicist said in a statement that the cause was complications from skin cancer.

Ralph and his older brother Carter started out in the late 1940s as a duo. After Carter died in 1966, Ralph continued with his band the Clinch Mountain Boys and built a fan base fiercely devoted to his straightforward banjo and archaic-type singing known as the “high lonesome” mountain sound.

High Lonesome

Stanley’s sound came in part from the fact that he often sang in a minor key, while his band played in a happy-sounding major key.

John Wright, who wrote a book on Stanley called Traveling the High Way Home, says that tension between minor and major, plus what he called Stanley’s unearthly smokey vocal tone, “gives this old-time mysterious flavor to the singing. The voice sounds like it’s coming out of the past, like a ghost or something like that.”

Stanley himself told WHYY’s Fresh Air in 2002 that he was aware his voice was special, “a gift I think that God’s given me, and he means me to use that.”

Virginia Roots

Stanley recalled growing up poor on a farm in southwest Virginia, using a stick as a make-believe banjo.

He and his brother Carter started playing professionally on local radio in Bristol, Va., in 1946, calling their show Farm and Fun Time. Trying to compete against more mainstream country music and rock-and-roll, they moved toward a smoother duet style.

After Carter’s death, Ralph moved back to the traditional sound. He also drew on his childhood experiences in the Baptist Church and started presenting a capella solo and quartet religious songs on the bluegrass stage, something that wasn’t common before.

O, Brother

Ralph Stanley entered the Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 1992, but his unearthly tenor catapulted him to much wider fame when, in 2000 at age 73, he was asked to sing the song “O, Death” for the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou.

He told Fresh Air he was surprised by the reaction, but also gratified with the letters from people who said “that sound caused them to change their life, and I … believe that gift was given to me for that purpose.”

SOURCE

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BILL CUNNINGHAM, WHO TAUGHT US ABOUT ETHICAL JOURNALISM

June 26 at 6:00 AM

Bill Cunningham, the modern era’s original street style photographer, died Saturday in New York. His passing marked the end of an extraordinary career, during which Cunningham, 87, spent almost 40 years chronicling the world’s ever-changing fashion trends and shifting social mores for the New York Times.

His death also means that fashion reporting — and the wider world of journalism — has been been deflated, diluted, weakened. That is the more profound sadness.

In his wake, there are countless new-generation photographers who prowl the sidewalks looking to capture some rare bird flitting along Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, where Cunningham often waited with his camera in hand. Street style lives on Instagram. It has been enshrined in books, exhibitions, films. And so too was Cunningham’s work. But Cunningham was admired and beloved within the fashion world and beyond not merely because of his skill at transforming style photography into cultural anthropology, but because of the integrity, precision and journalistic fervor with which he did it.

In an industry in which it is sometimes hard to tell what is truth and what is a paid promotion, Cunningham was obsessive in his philosophy of refusal. For decades he worked independently and only grudgingly joined the Times staff — mostly for the health insurance. At a time when fashion influencers regularly receive free airfare, free clothes, free hotels, Cunningham was a journalistic ascetic. He valued his freedom more than anything else.

He was known for his blue French workman’s jacket. It was utterly basic. Wholly of the people. Its only flourish was the bold shade of blue, which on Cunningham seemed less about aesthetics and more about rebellion. Against what? The quotidian elegance of fashion’s favorite color: black. In a sea of black-cloaked editors, Cunningham was not part of the pack. He was not a fashion lemming. He was not chic; he was working.

He was known for photographing the most rarefied parties and galas but never partaking of even an hors d’oeuvre or sip of champagne. He tooled around on his bicycle rather than a black Town Car. He stood in the rain, the snow, the cold, the wind focused on nothing more than getting the photograph that he wanted. He always seemed to be working so hard — even as the energy of those many generations his junior had long since flagged.

He called people “kid” and “child.” And he always did so with a combination of dismay and enthusiasm in his voice. His tone always suggested that he suspected — hoped — that everyone was up to something interesting, naughty and just possibly “mahvelous” — as he might say. (He graciously gave this writer permission to include his photographs in her book.)

In many ways, journalism has veered away from telling other people’s stories and instead spends a great deal of time focused on the opinions, style, and personality of the journalist. Fashion has its preening bloggers. Politics has its talking heads. Tech has its know-it-all-and-tell-everyone-about-it millionaires. And everyone has a collection of selfies.

Cunningham didn’t just prefer to stay in the background, he believed that as a journalist it was the only way that he could do his job. When Bergdorf Goodman celebrated his work in its windows and threw a party in his honor, he spent the evening photographing the other guests. After finally agreeing to participate in the 2010 documentary, “Bill Cunningham New York,” he lamented the constant intrusions that the notoriety brought him as strangers interrupted his work to say hello or ask for a selfie. How could he be a fly-on-the-wall if everyone was looking at him?

Cunningham could be abrupt or brusque to those who got in between his camera and his subject. Do not block his shot! But he was also known for his warmth and quiet. He was not a diva in an industry that seems to cultivate them.

He embraced diversity. He had a soft spot for youthful exuberance and wily outsiders. In his quest to document personal style, he used a wide lens.

So many of the traits that made Cunningham respected and admired are those that should be common in journalism — but often go missing, particularly in fashion reporting. He guarded his integrity with ferocity. He focused on his work — not the seating chart, the gift bag or his personal brand — with joy and passion.

And through the long days, the competing crowds and the petty distractions, he was a gentleman.

SOURCE

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PRINCE BE, WHO INFUSED RAP WITH MYSTICISM

Prince Be, left, and his brother, Jarrett, of P.M. Dawn in 1992. Credit Richard Young/Rex Features via AP Images

Prince Be, the frontman for the psychedelic pop-rap group P.M. Dawn, which in the early 1990s was both popular and maligned — and since then has been both underappreciated and quietly influential — died on Friday at a hospital in Neptune, N.J. He was 46.

The cause was renal failure resulting from complications of diabetes, his wife, Mary Sierra-Cordes, said.

Prince Be had suffered from diabetes for more than two decades, and had various health problems over the years, among them several strokes, including one in 2005 that left him partly paralyzed, and gangrene, which led to the partial amputation of one leg. He had been in nursing homes for the last several years.

Even in an era of earnest bohemianism in hip-hop, P.M. Dawn stood out for its hippie-esque mysticism, fantastical imagery, crypto-Christian references and ethereal musical aesthetic. Prince Be was an early blurrer of the lines between rapping and singing, and between the earthly and the spiritual, inspired in part by the American mystic Edgar Cayce, about whom he learned from his mother, Janice Carr. (Prince Be’s father, Attrell Cordes Sr., died when he was young. His stepfather was a drummer, for Kool & the Gang and others.)

Prince Be was born Attrell Cordes on May 15, 1970, in Jersey City. He and his younger brother, Jarrett, known as DJ Minutemix, formed P.M. Dawn there in the late 1980s. The group’s first demo was made with $600 Prince Be earned as a night guard at a homeless shelter.

P.M. Dawn released its first single in 1989, and two years later released its excellent debut album, “Of the Heart, of the Soul, and of the Cross: The Utopian Experience,” a moody and abstract reframing of hip-hop through a New Age lens. It spawned the single “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” — based on a sample of the new wave standard “True,” by Spandau Ballet — which became the first rap song by a black act to top the Hot 100, Billboard’s pop singles chart. (Previously, the only hip-hop songs to top that chart were by Vanilla Ice, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch and, depending on your taxonomic choices, Blondie.)

The next year, P.M. Dawn released the elegant ballad “I’d Die Without You,” which reached No. 2 on the Hot 100. In 1993 the group released its entrancing second album, “The Bliss Album…? (Vibrations of Love and Anger and the Ponderance of Life and Existence).” Like its predecessor, it went gold.

In 1991, Prince Be said some impertinent things to Details magazine about KRS-One, the tough-talking political rapper. Retaliation was swift. KRS-One appeared at a 1992 P.M. Dawn performance at the Sound Factory in Manhattan, which was being filmed for MTV, and physically threw the group off the stage. The incident ensured that P.M. Dawn would be almost as well known for the negative reactions it engendered as for its hits. (The group was also parodied in the 1993 film “Fear of a Black Hat,” which satirized hip-hop.)

P.M. Dawn released three more albums between 1995 and 2000, but they were more abstruse than their predecessors and were coolly received.

During those years, Prince Be was producing songs for other artists as well. He was also a well-regarded record collector.

In addition to his brother and his wife, his survivors include his mother; two sons, Christian and Brandon; a daughter, Mia; and four half brothers, Sylvaneous, Jason, Chris and Johnny Cordes.

In 2005, P.M. Dawn appeared on the NBC reality show “Hit Me, Baby, One More Time,” on which nostalgia acts competed against one another by performing both their own songs and other artists’. Prince Be, who had suffered a stroke, had to be assisted onto the stage and performed from a seat.

But P.M. Dawn won the competition. The group donated the $20,000 prize to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

SOURCE

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SKYWATCH: A NEW MINIMOON FOR EARTH, FIND STELLAR DWARFS, AND MORE

LATEST NEWS

A New Minimoon for Earth

Sky & Telescope
A recently discovered minimoon, the asteroid known as 2016 HO3, follows Earth in its orbit around the Sun.

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Seeing Sunspots as the Ancients Did

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Astronomers have reconstructed 18-century telescopes to observe sunspots and better understand solar cycles.

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FRIPON: A New All-Sky Meteor Network

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The innovative FRIPON network will engage professionals and the public in the hunt for space rocks.

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OBSERVING HIGHLIGHTS

This Week’s Sky at a Glance, June 24 – July 1
Sky & Telescope
Arcturus and Vega are about equally high overhead shortly after dark this weekend, and the last-quarter Moon (exact at 2:19 p.m. EDT) rises around 1 a.m. below the Great Square of Pegasus.

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Hunting White Dwarfs: Night’s Stellar Peewees

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Take a trip down the rabbit hole to the weird and weighty world of planet-sized white dwarf stars.

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Tour June’s Sky: Three Planets at Nightfall

Sky & Telescope

Sky & Telescope’s astronomy podcast takes you on a guided tour of the night sky. After the Sun sinks from view, enjoy watching Mars and Saturn near Scorpius in the southeast and Jupiter near Leo well up in the southwest.

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COMMUNITY

NEAF 2016 Astronomy Equipment Videos

Sky & Telescope

Watch Dennis di Cicco conduct in-depth interviews with vendors at the NEAF 2016 trade show displaying their newest wares.

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INTERNATIONAL WIDOW’S DAY: JUNE 23, 2016

International Widows’ Day

International Widows’ Day was introduced to address poverty and injustice faced by widows and their children in many countries. It was officially recognized by the United Nations in 2010 and is observed anually on June 23.

The situation of widows in many countries is desolate.
©iStockphoto.com/jcarillet

What Do People Do?

The first officially recognized International Widows’ Day on June 23, 2011 was marked with a conference held in the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Public Life

International Widows’ Day is a global observance and not a public holiday.

Background

International Widows’ Day was initiated by the Loomba Foundation in 2005. The plight of widows world-wide has been the foundation’s focus since it was established in 1997. According to its founder, Raj Loomba, women in many countries experience great hardship after their husbands die. “They are not looked after by governments or NGOs and they are shunned by society.”

The observance falls on June 23 because Loomba’s mother became a widow on that date in 1954.

External Link

Learn more about International Widows’ Day

International Widows’ Day Observances

Weekday Date Year Name Holiday Type
Thu Jun 23 2011 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Sat Jun 23 2012 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Sun Jun 23 2013 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Mon Jun 23 2014 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Tue Jun 23 2015 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Thu Jun 23 2016 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Fri Jun 23 2017 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Sat Jun 23 2018 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Sun Jun 23 2019 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance
Tue Jun 23 2020 International Widows’ Day United Nations observance

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