“Tell It In Words and Pictures: Outstanding New Biographies of African ... - School Library Journal” plus 4 more |
- Tell It In Words and Pictures: Outstanding New Biographies of African ... - School Library Journal
- Malcolm X was bisexual. Get over it - Democratic Underground.com
- New faceoff for mayor, forum for school board on tap - New Haven Register
- Verizon CEO Congratulates Industry for Innovation and Investment ... - Stockhouse
- Verizon Receives Technical Achievement Award for Optical Control Plane ... - Providence Journal
| Tell It In Words and Pictures: Outstanding New Biographies of African ... - School Library Journal Posted: 21 Oct 2009 03:12 AM PDT Joy Fleishhacker, Curriculum Connections -- School Library Journal, 10/20/2009
Related TeachingBooks.net resources »»» Librarians and educators will want to have these recently published biographies on their shelves in time for Black History Month and for use throughout the year. Presented in picture-book format, these first-rate offerings will grab readers' interest and satisfy their curiosity with a dynamic balance of engaging narrative, striking artwork, and storytelling flair. These depictions soar beyond straightforward biographical summation to convey an intimate sense of time and place and underscore the enormity of challenges faced and achievements accomplished. Read these books aloud with students to introduce courageous and committed men and women, to enrich discussion of the African-American experience, and to ignite interest in American history. Or put these volumes in youngsters' hands for involving, you-are-there reading adventures that will inform and inspire. Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) Filled with lyrical phrasings and resonant rhythms, the text reads aloud like a foot-stamping dance tune, fluently conveying the essence of a woman who was large in stature ("almost six feet tall while still a child…with size-twelve feet…and hands like hams"), steadfastly devoted to helping others, and a fiery and fearless orator (the book climaxes with Truth's famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech). Aglow in ember-bright hues tempered by softer earth tones, the vivid illustrations effortlessly echo the verbal imagery. The artwork has an abstract, flowing quality, with heavy black lines riveting the eye and nailing down details. One dramatic spread focuses on Truth's face as she speaks her mind to a crowd, capturing her passion and commitment and reiterating the text's refrain: "Big. Black. Beautiful. True. That was Sojourner." A biographical note and photos of Sojourner are appended. Students (and teachers) can step-stomp over to the Sojourner Truth Institute's Web site to find out more about her life and times, view historical photos, and access a virtual library of her speeches and other information. The book begins with an edge-of-your seat showdown between Reeves and a desperado who fires four shots before he is done in by Bass's Winchester. Colorful quotes from contemporaries (on both sides of the law) and Nelson's own tongue-twanging language and clever metaphors relate specific incidents to introduce a quick-witted, gutsy, and tough-as-leather hero who was respected and feared throughout the land. The author makes clear that despite his size and strength, the "biggest thing about Bass Reeves was his character. He had a dedication to duty few men could match. He didn't have a speck of fear in him. And he was as honest as the day is long." Textured brushstrokes, rich colors, and eye-catching perspectives make R. Gregory Christie's paintings as arresting as the action they portray. Parchment-like backdrops and candid poses give the illustrations the old-time aura of an antique photograph. A portrait of Reeves, a glossary of "Western Words," added historical tidbits, and a list of kid-appropriate resources are appended. Youngsters will be awed and intrigued by this amazing true-life story, presented here with the flavor, suspense, and drama of an Old West yarn. A podcast of Christie discussing his work and other resources are available at the publisher's Web site. Paul Robeson (1898-1976) Set against a warm, cream backdrop, George Ford's stirring monochromatic illustrations use strong lines and shading to convey Robeson's power as a performer and his unwavering sense of purpose. According to Greenfield's afterword, Robeson "lived and sang a purposeful life." Be sure to enhance studies of this courageous and charismatic individual by sharing the "power, the richness, and the beauty of his voice" with your students (recordings and videos of Robeson performing classics such as "Ol' Man River" are available on Youtube). Coretta Scott King (1927-2006) There is much to discuss and elucidate here, including Ghandi's belief that "the humility of millions could free/more than just one people/it could free the world;" the "long journey" begun by the Montgomery bus boycott; and the inexorable fact that "tragedy accompanies growth/no matter who we are." This stirring ode to a remarkable woman fittingly ends with an uplifting excerpt from the traditional gospel song, "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round," providing a wonderful opportunity for a listening experience. A photo of King and a biographical note are appended. Wendell Scott (1921-1990) Though he lacked "big-money backers"' and drove only "hand-me-down cars," Scott's tenacity and talent eventually earned him a dramatic (and unacknowledged until later) win at a championship NASCAR race in 1963. "And when Hollywood made a movie about his life [1977's Greased Lightning], he built three cars for the film and even drove in action scenes." Done in warm pastels, Eric A. Velasquez's paintings employ varied layouts, sequenced panels, and changing perspectives to keep the visual pace moving just as swiftly as the narrative. Kids will enjoy discovering this engine-revving, automobile-tinkering, risk-taking trailblazer. Muhammad Ali (1942- ) The narrative capably covers Ali's accomplishments in many arenas, discussing his finesse and pizzazz in the ring, his religious conversion and growing social consciousness, his 1971 victory in the Supreme Court justifying his status as conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, and his ongoing fight against Parkinson's disease. With scintillating color blends, vibrantly flowing lines, and shimmer-filled shading, the paintings convey both Ali's audacity and sincerity, while expanding the text with details of time and place. Supplement this wonderful biography with a visit to "The Official Site of Muhammad Ali," where students can access more information, browse an interactive time line, and view video clips and photos of this American hero in action as athlete and humanitarian. Related TeachingBooks.net resources »»» TalkbackThis content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Malcolm X was bisexual. Get over it - Democratic Underground.com Posted: 21 Oct 2009 05:07 AM PDT October is Black History Month in Britain – a wonderful celebration of the huge, important and valuable contribution that black people have made to humanity and to popular culture. It is also worth celebrating that many leading black icons have been lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT), most notably the US black liberation hero Malcolm X. Other prominent black LGBTs include jazz singer Billie Holiday, author and civil rights activist James Baldwin, soul singer-songwriter Luther Vandross, blues singer Bessie Smith, poet and short story writer Langston Hughes, singer Johnny Mathis, novelist Alice Walker, civil rights activist and organiser of the 1963 March on Washington Bayard Rustin, blues singer Ma Rainey, dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, actress, singer and dancer Josephine Baker, Olympic diving gold medallist Greg Louganis, singer and songwriter Little Richard, political activist and philosopher Angela Davis, singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman and drag performer and singer RuPaul. Few of these prominent black LGBT achievers are listed on the most comprehensive UK Black History Month website, which hosts biographies of notable black men and women. In the section on people, only Davis is mentioned and her lesbianism is not acknowledged. The website fails to identify the vast majority of black public and historical figures who are LGBT. The Official Guide to Black History Month UK is equally remiss. Why these omissions? Black people are not one homogenous heterosexual mass. Where is the recognition of sexual diversity within the black communities and black history? In contrast, LGBT History Month, which takes place in the UK in February, devotes a whole section of its website to the lives of leading black LGBT people and links to the websites for Black History Month. Disappointingly, this solidarity is not reciprocated. On the Black History Month websites I could not find a LGBT section or a LGBT History Month link. Perhaps it is unintentional but Black History Month sometimes feels like Straight Black History Month. Famous black LGBT people are not acknowledged and celebrated. Either their contribution to black history and culture is ignored or their sexuality is airbrushed out of their biographies. A good example of this neglect is the denialism surrounding the bisexuality of one of the greatest modern black liberation heroes: Malcolm X. The lack of recognition is perhaps not surprising, given that some of his family and many black activists have made strenuous efforts to deny his same-sex relationships and suppress recognition of the full spectrum of his sexuality. Why the cover-up? So what if Malcolm X was bisexual? Does this diminish his reputation and achievements? Of course not. Whether he was gay, straight or bisexual should not matter. His stature remains, regardless of his sexual orientation. Yet many of the people who revere him seem reluctant to accept that their hero, and mine, was bisexual. Malcolm X's bisexuality is more than just a question of truth and historical fact. There has never been any black person of similar global prominence and recognition who has been publicly known to be gay or bisexual. Young black lesbian, gay and bisexual people can, like their white counterparts, often feel isolated, guilty and insecure about their sexuality. They could benefit from positive, high-achieving role models, to give them confidence and inspiration. Who better than Malcolm X? He inspired my human rights activism and was a trailblazer in the black freedom struggle. He can inspire other LGBT people too. Right now, there is not a single living black person who is a worldwide household name and who is also openly gay. That's why the issue of Malcolm X's sexuality is so important. Having an internationally renowned gay or bisexual black icon would do much to help challenge homophobia, especially in the black communities and particularly in Africa and the Caribbean where homosexuality and bisexuality are often dismissed as a "white man's disease". So what is the evidence for Malcolm X's bisexual orientation? Most people remember him as the foremost US black nationalist leader of the 1960s. Despite the downsides of his anti-white rhetoric, black separatism and religious superstition, he was America's leading spokesperson for black consciousness, pride and self-help. He spoke with fierce eloquence and defiance for black upliftment and freedom. Malcolm's complex, changing sexuality was never part of the narrative of his life until the publication of Bruce Perry's acclaimed biography, Malcolm – The Life of a Man Who Changed Black America. Perry is a great admirer and defender of Malcolm X, but not an uncritical one. He wrote the facts, based on interviews with over 420 people who knew Malcolm personally at various stages in his life, from childhood to his tragic assassination in 1965. His book is not a hatchet job, as some black critics claim, it is the exact opposite. Perry presents an honest, rounded story of Malcolm's life and achievements which, in my opinion, is far more moving and humane than the better known but somewhat hagiographic The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told To Alex Haley. Based on interviews with Malcolm's closest boyhood and adult friends, Perry suggests the US black liberation leader was not as solidly heterosexual as his Nation of Islam colleagues and black nationalist acolytes have always claimed. While Perry did not make Malcolm's sexuality a big part of his biography – in fact, it is a very minor aspect – he did not shy away from writing about what he heard in his many interviews. He documents Malcolm's many same-sex relations and his activities as a male sex worker, which spanned at least a 10-year period, from his mid-teens to his 20s, as I described in some detail in a previous article for the Guardian. Although Malcolm later married and, as far as we know, abandoned sex with men, his earlier same-sex relations suggest that he was bisexual rather than heterosexual. Abstaining from gay sex after his marriage does not change the fundamentals of his sexual orientation and does not mean that he was wholly straight. Towards the end of his life, Malcolm's ideas were evolving in new directions. Politically, he gravitated leftwards. Faith-wise, after his trip to Mecca, he began to embrace a non-racial mainstream Islam. His mind was becoming open to new ideas and values. Had he not been murdered in 1965, Malcolm might have eventually, like Huey Newton of the Black Panthers and the black power leader Angela Davis, embraced the lesbian and gay liberation movement as part of the struggle for human emancipation. Instead, to serve their homophobic political agenda, for over half a century the Nation of Islam and many black nationalists have suppressed knowledge of Malcolm's same-sex relations. It is now time for Black History Month to speak the truth. Malcolm X was bisexual. Get over it. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| New faceoff for mayor, forum for school board on tap - New Haven Register Posted: 21 Oct 2009 03:55 AM PDT WEST HAVEN — Candidates for mayor and the Board of Education have two chances this week to debate each other and persuade voters to pick them Nov. 3 This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Verizon CEO Congratulates Industry for Innovation and Investment ... - Stockhouse Posted: 21 Oct 2009 06:32 AM PDT --Cites Power of 'High-IQ Networks' and Applications to Create Jobs CHICAGO, Oct 21, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ -- Touting the power of "high-I.Q. networks" and applications to create jobs, reduce greenhouse gases, and improve healthcare and education, Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg told an industry conference Wednesday (Oct. 21) that "we have the opportunity to create massive change on a scale the world has never seen before." In a keynote address at SUPERCOMM 2009, Seidenberg said the key is to continue the private investment and technological progress that has made today's communications market "one of the most dynamic and innovative" ever. "We've invested more than $80 billion over the last five years to build these platforms for growth -- and that's Verizon alone," he said. "In fact, if you exclude real estate, investment in information, communications and technology accounted for an astonishing 43 percent of all capital investment in the U.S. last year." According to the Verizon executive, "this investment and innovation has never been more important than it is right now," given the global recession and the need for economies to become smarter and more productive. "In short, the combination of increasingly powerful networks and ever-more intelligent edge devices is a whole new way to run a home, an enterprise, a community or an economy," Seidenberg said. "That's why broadband, wireless and global IP technologies must be at the heart of our search for real economic growth and real competitive advantage for the future." Seidenberg cautioned that "while this future is imminent, it is not inevitable, and the decisions we make today - as an industry and as a country - will determine whether the benefits of these transformational networks will be felt sooner or much, much later." One day before the Federal Communications Commission plans to release its order on network neutrality, the Verizon executive took issue with "proponents of net neutrality [who suggest] that network providers like Verizon and applications providers like Google, Amazon and others occupy fundamentally different parts of the Internet ecosystem - a binary world of 'dumb pipes' on the one hand and 'smart applications' on the other." "This is a mistake, pure and simple: an analog idea in a digital universe," he said. "It fundamentally misreads how innovation happens in a dynamic and collaborative industry. "Our industry has shown that we can work with the government as well as our partners and competitors to achieve mutually desirable goals of more competition, consumer choice and broadband expansion. But we can't achieve these ends if we interrupt the flow of private capital and delay the cascading productivity impacts of a more networked world. We can't create smart economy by dumbing down our critical infrastructure," Seidenberg said. He warned against "pitting network providers and applications developers against each other in a zero-sum game, when the real promise of broadband is an expanding pie for everybody." "Rather than impose rigid rules on a rapidly changing industry, the FCC should focus on creating the conditions for growth," he said. "And we need to protect consumers by insisting on transparency in the provision of products and services by all Internet providers, including applications developers." Seidenberg also suggested increasing spectrum availability, streamlining the process for cell tower siting, and overhauling universal service subsidies and the payment system for exchanging telecommunications traffic. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), headquartered in New York, is a global leader in delivering broadband and other wireless and wireline communications services to mass market, business, government and wholesale customers. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, serving more than 87 million customers nationwide. Verizon's Wireline operations provide converged communications, information and entertainment services over the nation's most advanced fiber-optic network. Wireline also includes Verizon Business, which delivers innovative and seamless business solutions to customers around the world. A Dow 30 company, Verizon employs a diverse workforce of more than 235,000 and last year generated consolidated operating revenues of more than $97 billion. For more information, visit www.verizon.com. VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases. SOURCE Verizon http://www.verizon.com Copyright (C) 2009 PR Newswire. All rights reservedThis content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| Verizon Receives Technical Achievement Award for Optical Control Plane ... - Providence Journal Posted: 21 Oct 2009 07:08 AM PDT CHICAGO, Oct. 21 -- Verizon is the winner of NEC's first Empowered by Telecommunications Award for technical achievement. The award recognizes Verizon for its leadership role in optical control plane technology. This technology allows electronic devices within optical networks to easily communicate with each other via software installed on network elements, simplifying operations and allowing for near real-time provisioning of designated new circuits. The award was presented at the USTelecom member reception on Oct. 20 in Chicago as part of Supercomm 2009. This is the first year the NEC Corporation of America has presented the Empowered by Telecommunications Awards, which recognize winners for achievements during 2008 in the categories of business value, technical achievement and overall market success. "This award underscores Verizon's commitment to optical control plane technology and the innovation and functionality it helps us deliver to our customers," said Mark Wegleitner, senior vice president of technology for Verizon. "Control plane technology is the basis for a number of network initiatives such as just-in-time circuit provisioning, bandwidth-on-demand services and our global mesh architecture." Boris Sinkovec, general manager, sales and marketing, NEC Corporation of America, said, "NEC and USTelecom sought to recognize carriers that displayed vision, leadership and technical advancement in their communications network. With a panel of independent judges, I am proud to offer Verizon the NEC Empowered by Telecommunications Award for technical achievement for its work in establishing multivendor optical control plane interoperability." In September 2008, Verizon accomplished an industry first by completing a multisupplier interoperability trial in a control plane trial environment. By carrying test traffic through optical circuits on the Verizon core network from Chicago to Atlanta, and using three different optical transport equipment vendors, the company demonstrated use of the optical control plane integrated with a circuit-provisioning support system. The result was a reduction in time between the circuit's order and activation. As part of the award, NEC will donate $10,000 to FIRST( )(For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) on behalf of Verizon. FIRST is a not-for-profit organization established to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. Verizon Communications Inc. VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts, high-quality video and images, and other information are available at Verizon's News Center on the World Wide Web at www.verizon.com/news. To receive news releases by e-mail, visit the News Center and register for customized automatic delivery of Verizon news releases. SOURCE Verizon CONTACT: Media, Lynn Staggs, +1-918-590-2403, Web site: http://www.verizon.com/ Company News On-Call: http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/094251.html This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney's robust language and radiant artwork proudly promenade together to provide a magnetic look at this 19th-century abolitionist, lecturer, and women's rights activist. There's nothing quiet about the narrative, which celebrates Sojourner Truth's Step-Stomp Stride (Disney/Hyperion, 2009; Gr 3-6) as she trudged through years of hardworking slavery, treaded her way to freedom, and finally, "putting her foot down for what she knew was right," marched across the land to preach about her beliefs.
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