I love comics, hip-hop, history and beautiful books. All these things helped form who I am today. As a librarian I still love comics, hip-hop, history, and beautiful books. I feel it is important to cover these aspects in a library collection. Rarely do all these categories come in one work, but this series has it all. I was stoked to receive this collection as a gift, but didn't get around to reading it until now.
Amazingly beautiful slipcase!
The Hip-Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor Vols. 1 & 2 exceeds the bar of comics, art, hip-hop, history and beautiful books standards. It will make an invaluable addition to your library collection. This comic is published by the amazing Fantagraphics press. Buy it now--your community will appreciate it.
Vol. 1 traces the history of Hip-Hop from the 1970's to 1981. It is filled with little vignettes about seminal figures and events in Hip-Hop history. The stories it tells begin in the bronx with kids rocking out to Cool Herc's new kind of music. Community halls Hip-Hop parties was where it all started. The break was the instrumental part of the song. When a break occurred Cool Herc saw that was when people really got into the groove dancing. Cool Herc Figured out how to extend the break of the record by looping it using two copies. This spurred on Break Dancing.
Vol. 1
The story goes on to show how the dj's, dancers and artists all collaborated and formed the culture of Hip-Hop. Fab 5 Freddy, LEE, GrandMaster Flash, Samo and all the important key players are in this amazing work. The history covers business dealings and key PR moves that created a buzz and sold records. Artists are given their due in this amazing comic. The graffiti scene is shown and described in anecdotes and short story lines.
Panel about the film Wild Style
The artwork in this comic is so dope. Piskor's ability to caricature people and bring out their personalities in comic panels is amazing. His caricatures of Russell Simmons and other key figures of the Hip-Hop movement had me rolling in laughter and recognition. The use of newsprint style coloring is sometimes enhanced with special coloring to make it really zing!
Vol. 2
Vol. 2 covers from 1981-1983. It just keeps getting better. The stories and characters are done so well this comic reminds me of an amazing documentary. I really love how Piskor makes these larger than life figures into real people. These stories are historically accurate and insightful. These volumes cover both East Coast and West Coast movements. The Ice-T origin story and the Dr. Dre Origins are great and really fun.
What I like about these books:
Historically accurate
Beautifully drawn and colored
Caricatures are amazingly good and accurate
Coverage of different aspects of Hip-Hop
Classic Hip-Hop NYC scene.
Why you should buy this book for your library:
This book is an important work on the history of Hip-Hop
The art is great
The stories are wonderful
The book fits YA and Adult classifications
In addition to being an excellent addition to your library collection. This slipcase makes an amazing Christmas gift. I know--I received mine as a Christmas gift and was thrilled!
Any student, or fan of Hip-Hop will love these books. Go get them!
An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 (The Lamar Series in Western History)by Benjamin Madley is a book that should be in every library in the US. This book covers an essential history that has heretofore been neglected save for a few works such as Murder State.
Series: The Lamar Series in Western History
Hardcover: 712 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (May 24, 2016)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300181361
ISBN-13: 978-0300181364
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
The book covers the history of the genocide of Indigenous peoples in the state of California from 1846-1873. During this time, the book traces the beginnings of the genocide from scattered massacres to full scale state and federally sponsored militia and military massacre campaigns. The sheer brutality and callousness against the indigenous people of California is stunning and hard to read.
CA Indian Population 1845-1880 Genocide in Numbers
This book shows how the pattern of forcing Indians from their home hunting grounds and by the removal of game due to large numbers of immigrants--beginning during the Gold Rush. The indians then could not feed themselves, so they stole cattle from White ranchers. The White ranchers would then raise a posse, or a militia force to go "teach the indians a lesson." The lesson would entail murdering every man, woman and child of the first indigenous village happened upon. No matter if they were 'guilty' or not.
Vigilantes were supported by the local government and the state.
The combination of vigilante massacres with state sponsored militia killing campaigns and the military murder expeditions was lethal and decimated the Californian Indian population. The Indians had nowhere to hide except high in the mountains, where there was little food. This forced them to steal from White people, which led to more murder expeditions against them. It was a cycle that was lethal and effective in 'eradicating' the indigenous people of California.
If you were lucky enough to survive a massacre, you would not have any food, clothing or shelter to help you live. Many survivors died from exposure or starvation. As I was reading this, I thought of Ishi--his story is heartbreaking. You can read about it here: http://history.library.ucsf.edu/ishi.html.
The brutality of the immigrants is mind-boggling.
The killing was relentless. The Indians sometimes fought back and killed whites, which raised even more ire and retribution. The murder unmerciful and was encouraged by California Newspapers. These papers called for total annihilation of all Californian Indians.
Slow death at the reservation.
You may be thinking, "Why didn't the Indians just go to a reservation. When Indians fled to reservations starved the Indians. They didn't provide the promised supplies. Many starved to death.
This brought about the horrible choice of leaving the reservation and facing:
Enforced slavery. There were vagrancy laws that stated an Indian had to prove they were not in debt to someone. This entailed the possession of a certificate that stated they were not in debt. If the Indian could not prove this, then they were arrested and put up for auction. They were sold to someone for a period of time, usually years. During this time they were charged for food and clothes and were never paid enough money to pay off this debt. Therefore, they could never get their certificate of no debt. They would be stuck in perpetual slavery.
Or
Being tracked down and murdered by a posse of citizens or a state sponsored militia. After a theft, they would hunt down and kill any Indian they encountered. They used this as a chance for "pedagogical violence." Violence that would teach anyone who heard about it that they should not steal from White people or they would face utter annihilation or slavery. They often collected scalps and brought them back as souvenirs. Some local country stores had Indian scalps nailed to their walls well into the 20th century.
The state paid well for militiamen to track down and murder Indians in CA. They they sought reimbursement from the the federal government. The federal government paid for the genocide of California Indians and it paid well. This pay, in itself, was a reason to form a militia and make some money.
State sponsored Genocide in CA.
Sometimes the children and women were kept alive, but sold into the california slave system. Women were sold into sexual slavery and other forms of bondage. Children were often sold to estates where they remained the rest of their lives as chattel.
Some Indians turned to gold mining when their territories were impinged upon. Once there was an influx of White immigrants into CA though, there wasn't enough for everyone and the White miners simply murdered the Indian miners and claim jumped their claims.
There is a timeline at the end of the book that tracks the murder of indigenous people in CA according to state historical record that includes body counts. This is the most well-researched and comprehensive information on this subject to date.
US genocide has yet to be covered in any manner similar to the Holocaust in Europe. The time is coming though. The cat is out of the bag.
Other important books on this subject:
Churchill, W., & Mazal Holocaust Collection. (1997). A little matter of genocide: Holocaust and denial in the Americas, 1492 to the present. San Francisco: City Lights Books.
Lindsay, B. C. (2015). Murder state: California's native american genocide 1846-1873. Place of publication not identified: Univ Of Nebraska Press.
Stannard, D. E. (1992). American holocaust: Columbus and the conquest of the New World. New York: Oxford University Press.
[This is the last installment of a three part series on Whiteness.]
Whiteness is a concept that describes the
cultural, lingual, institutional beliefs, practices and behavior that maintains
access to power and reinforces power for White people and people of lighter
skin tones. This colonial system was created for and by Europeans for the
benefit of Europeans. Everything was in relation to the European--this is
a hallmark of the concept of Whiteness--that everything is judged in relation
to Whiteness and not something else.
Whiteness is embedded in the fabric of everyday life in the US
The use of patrols to capture runaway slaves was
one of the precursors of formal police forces, especially in the South.
Slave patrols were organized groups of three to
six white men who enforced discipline upon black slaves during the antebellum
U.S. southern states.
The police are still seen by many people to be
racial enforcers, they are seen as the colonial strong arm in black and brown
neighborhoods--they are most often occupiers--not public servants.
Mistreatment, beatings, rapes, robbing, bribe demands
and other behavior is expected by many communities of color when they encounter
the police.
I worry that I will be pulled over and shot by a
police officer on my daily commute far more than
Famous image of African American flood victims lined up to get food & clothing fr. Red Cross relief station in front of billboard ironically extolling WORLD'S HIGHEST STANDARD OF LIVING/ THERE'S NO WAY LIKE THE AMERICAN WAY. Location: Louisville, KY, US Date taken: February 1937 Photographer: Margaret Bourke-White
African Americans have never been accepted as White.
They have been ostracized from the American Way of life for
the most part.
They are colonized subjects within the colony.
Segregation, lack of educational resources, lack of opportunities
are all hallmarks of being Black in the US.
It behooves those who don’t want these hallmarks to adhere to
Whiteness as much as possible. We see this exemplified in too many POC
who have achieved ‘success’ in this society.
This is a screenshot I took from an article on Slate.
What is the implicit message here?
How does it relate to the previous image?
South Bronx 1970’s/slaves quarters, Colbert Co. AL
Things don’t change much in a society based on Whiteness.
Please think about these images for a moment.
Baltimore or Saskatoon
Contemporary racial disparity based on Whiteness in
Baltimore on the left.
Contemporary racial disparity based on Whiteness in Saskatoon on
the right.
Please think about these images for a moment.
This is how Black and brown kids are often treated at school.
Our kids are ‘over disciplined’ from an early age--sometimes from
preschool on…
Even after Brown Versus Education schools are still segregated.
Black and Brown schools are patrolled by police and brutality
occurs often to students of color.
This can take the form of detentions, or suspensions or other
academic marginalization ‘consequences.’
Or it can take the form of violence. As in the case above
(Spring Valley HS in SC), or as seen in several other recent videos of police
officers brutalizing students of color.
This cop was fired.
Schools should be a place where everyone is welcome.
Schools should and must be supportive of people.
Schools should be accepting, edifying and challenging for ALL
students.
Schools need to have disciplinary actions that are non-violent.
Schools should not hold up Whiteness as an ideal of education.
Adheres to and believes in Whiteness.
One other thing about Whiteness is that it can
be adhered to by non-white people.
Many people of color and those who purport to
want to help people of color adhere to the system of Whiteness that the
educational system upholds, supports and requires of POC who want to succeed.
I say that this is why we have made little to
no progress in equity, diversity and inclusion in our school systems and our
society.
Embedded Whiteness
The brutalities that were used to enforce the
racial hierarchies of yesterday are still with us today.They used to come in
the form of lynchings--back in the days of Jim Crow....
Now they come in the forms of Police shootings
of unarmed African Americans and Latinos in far greater numbers than Whites.
They come in vigilante shootings of unarmed
African Americans, for example--the shooting of Trayvon Martin.
So,
what does this have to do with Education?
Please
think about these questions:
· How do you see
Whiteness relating to Education?
· Can you think of some
examples of Whiteness in Education that you have seen?
· How can we mitigate
Whiteness in Education?
· Should we mitigate
Whiteness in Education?
· How does Whiteness
impact Educational Technology?
·
Does Whiteness come in between the truth and investigators?
I
had no idea (other than it is a poetic form from the middle east) until I read
the introduction to this wonderful work. I didn't look it up because I
was enthralled with the content of this beatific book! I didn't know James Foley, but my friend Yago Cura was his good
friend. Hinchas press (Yago Cura publisher) just recently published a
book of Poetry entitled Ghazals for Foley. This is a striking collection
of poems written by people to James Foley posthumously. The book also
includes a short story written by Foley that is utterly fascinating, intriguing
and beautiful. I feel like I got to know Jim Foley via these poems and
his short story. The intensity of a life so well lived is reason for a
celebration.
The
poems vary in quality according to my taste, but there are some really striking
and personal words here. They are all beautiful and in deeply
personal. The poets range from well-known writers, to other war correspondents,
to writing teachers and students of James Foley.
I've
got a bad Sufi feeling, Jim.
That
road-those trees-
The
light shifting in the Mountains-
Don't go, Jim.
Please-don't
go.
It
was a Thursday,
And
you were on your way home.
Jim,
I have a bad Sufi feeling.
Bad
Sufi Feeling by Claire Morgana Gillis
Even
if you aren't much of a poetry fan, the emotion of these poems is striking and
hits home.
Through
these poems I learned that James Foley was a Journalist, a Friend, A Lover, a
Student, A Teacher, an artist and a great American among many other things.
What
does it mean to be American?
What
does it mean to be human?
What
did it mean to be James Foley?
This
works gives you just a bit of an insight into this brave soul.
These
poems are ALL full of love for humanity and for James Foley.
This
collection is describes the real man, not the man who was used to manipulate
world hatred against Islam. It seems like every political, religious and
other faction wanted to use James Foley’s death for his or her own
benefit. This work helps mitigate that in my mind. It
humanizes and reclaims Mr. Foley for his friends, his family and for people,
like me, who didn't even know him.
James Foley: Writer
The
short story at the end of this book was the best thing about it for me. I
had never really read anything by Mr. Foley and his work does not fail to
impress. The story is artistic in the sense that it touches on human
emotions like love, loneliness, fear, adventure and respect. It also
gives one a snapshot into what life is like in a "green zone."
I often wonder what people do in such places, what people think while
behind these walls and how they interact with locals. This story
satisfies and piques many of my curiosities. I don't know many people
who have been to the wars in the Middle East, and have not asked those who have
what it was like.
I
was going to write more about this book, but you will get much more from it by
ordering it and reading it here:
